Resource and Project Energy Assessment 2018

Sessions Speakers Buzz

Accounting for Blockage Effects in Energy Production Assessments

12 Sep 18
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM

Tracks: Wind Flow Modeling

Recent evidence shows that blockage effects cause upstream wind speed reductions that are more pronounced and far-reaching than commonly assumed. The neglect of these effects represents material over-prediction biases in two areas: power curves and turbine interaction loss. Power curves are anchored to upstream measurements assumed to correspond to freestream conditions. Turbine interaction effects have historically been limited to wake effects such that upstream turbines are assumed to produce as if operating in isolation in freestream conditions – meaning wind flow and patterns of turbine production predictions are inherently inaccurate. This presentation will explain how to rigorously account for blockage effects otherwise neglected in energy production assessments. The methodology corrects power curves and accounts for the complete turbine interaction loss (wakes + blockage) without double-counting between any existing modelling, such as large wind farm corrections.