WIND TURBINE CONTROL ARCHITECTURE

Field of invention

The present invention relates to a wind turbine control ar chitecture and to a wind turbine comprising such a wind tur bine control architecture.

Fig. 3 shows a wind turbine control architecture 101 accord ing to the prior art. The prior art turbine control architec ture 101 consists of two computers, that is a main computer 110 which is responsible for turbine control operations, and an interface computer 120.

The main computer 110 is responsible for collecting data from a wind park using I/O-stations 115, which measure the turbine environment, and controls the necessary electric and mechanic devices for the optimized harvesting of the wind energy. The interface computer 120 uses a protocol converter for a commu nication between the main computer 110 and remaining systems in the wind park such as a SCADA system. The interface com puter 120 also implements a SQL data storage container which stores some of the field values collected by the main comput er 110 and makes these logged values available for an offline analysis and troubleshooting.

The interface computer 120 is present in each wind turbine and used to store field data collected by the I/O-stations 115 by the main computer 110. The main computer 110 and the interface computer 120 communicate by means of an ethernet network 113, where the main computer 110 samples the data and sends these values over the ethernet network 115 to the in terface computer 120 which stores the data into the SQL data storage container. Due to the communication via the ethernet network 115 between both computers 110, 120 and a legacy proprietary protocol be ing used, there is a jitter in the data from when they are sampled until they are logged-in by the interface computer 120. Furthermore, the data can be lost due to an instability in the ethernet network 115.

Both computers 110, 120 inside the wind turbine need to be setup and maintained. Besides the maintenance and initial costs, the wind turbine configuration is complex since the turbine control architecture 101 needs to be configured on the ethernet network 115 and the right set of permissions needs to be setup in both computers 110, 120.

Summary of the Invention

There may be a need for a wind turbine control architecture which enables a more reliable turbine control under reduced costs. This need may be met by the subject matter according to the independent claim. The present invention is further developed as set forth in the dependent claims.

According to a first aspect of the invention, a wind turbine control architecture comprises a turbine control portion which is configured to control at least one component of a wind turbine, and a turbine data storage portion which is configured to store a data storage container therein. The da ta storage container is not necessarily a physical container and can comprise a database. The turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion communicate with each other via an inter-process communication.

The turbine control portion can be responsible for the data acquisition which collects data from the field using external devices such as I/O-stations and provide the values for tur bine control operations and to the turbine data storage por tion. In the wind turbine control architecture, the data is internally transferred using the inter-process communication so that the external prior art ethernet network 115 (Fig. 3) or an ethernet interface for the data transfer can be omit ted. Furthermore, the data storage functionality is moved to the turbine data storage portion so that the prior art inter face computer can be eliminated. The costs are thus reduced in the investment stage and also during the lifetime of the turbine.

In addition, jitter and latency on the stored data can be re duced since the physical machine storing the data is the same which is acquiring the data from the field. With an improved data resolution, the diagnostics can be further improved and real-time analytics from the field data can be realized. The possibility of data loss due to network issues is removed. Higher sampling rates further allow better data resolution and thus better analytics, and preventive maintenances can be avoided.

In an embodiment, the turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion are integrally formed in a single wind turbine control device, for example a single computer. With the integration of the turbine control portion and the tur bine data storage portion in a single computer, the prior art interface computer 120 (Fig. 3) can be omitted by moving its functionality into the turbine control portion of the present invention. In this wind turbine control architecture, the da ta storage container can be realized by the turbine data storage portion which preferably uses a time-series data storage container design for data storage. As a result, the initial investment and the cost of maintenance on the wind turbine lifetime are reduced.

Furthermore, by having both the turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion in the same computer, data loss can be avoided due to network problems or cabling er rors. Since the turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion are in the same computer, bandwidth issues, that are usually a bottleneck in the network, can also be re moved since the data does not need to leave the computer.

In an embodiment, the turbine data storage portion is config ured to store a time-series data storage container, TSDB. By adding the time-series data storage container to the wind turbine control architecture, it is possible to store opera tional data in the same computer that is sampling the field data, whereby eliminating latencies in the data samples. The time-series data storage container further offers advantages in a relatively small data space and improved real-time ana lytics and diagnostics as well as troubleshooting as any event represented by a group of parameters is allocated to a predetermined time.

In an embodiment, the turbine control portion is configured to communicate with at least one external device, for example the I/O-stations in the field.

In an embodiment, the inter-process communication is a local process communication. In an embodiment, the inter-process communication uses a User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

In an embodiment, the turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion use a shared memory. A shared memory can be a memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Shared memory is an efficient means of passing data between programs. Depending on context, programs may run on a single processor or on multiple sepa rate processors. Using memory for communication inside a sin gle program, e.g. among its multiple threads, is also re ferred to as shared memory. A plurality of processes can share a certain part of a background memory such as a RAM (Random-Access Memory). For all processes involved, this shared memory area can be located in their address spaces and can be read and changed with normal memory access operations. Since processors of the turbine control portion and the tur- bine data storage portion can share a single view of data and the communication between their processors is faster as memory accesses to the same location, the shared memory is easy to program. As an alternative to the shared memory con cept, a distributed memory and a distributed shared memory concept can also be used.

In an embodiment, the turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion are connected by a local or internal bus which does not use the ethernet protocol.

In an embodiment, the turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion are configured to be setup and main tained together. The costs are thus reduced during the setup and during the lifetime of the wind turbine.

In an embodiment, the turbine control portion and the turbine data storage portion are configured to directly interface da ta of the data storage container, and the turbine control portion is configured to impose rules and guarantees of Qual ity of Service (QoS) parameters.

According to a second aspect of the invention, a wind turbine is provided which comprises the wind turbine control archi tecture according to any one of the preceding claims.

It has to be noted that embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to different subject matters.

In particular, some embodiments have been described with ref erence to apparatus type claims whereas other embodiments have been described with reference to method type claims. However, a person skilled in the art will gather from the above and the following description that, unless other noti fied, in addition to any combination of features belonging to one type of subject matter also any combination between fea tures relating to different subject matters, in particular between features of the apparatus type claims and features of the method type claims is considered as to be disclosed with this application.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The aspects defined above and further aspects of the present invention are apparent from the examples of embodiment to be described hereinafter and are explained with reference to the examples of embodiment. The invention will be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to examples of embodi ment but to which the invention is not limited.

Fig. 1 shows an example of a wind turbine and different ele ments thereof;

Fig. 2 shows a wind turbine control architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 3 shows a wind turbine control architecture according to the prior art.

Detailed Description

The illustrations in the drawings are schematically. It is noted that in different figures, similar or identical ele ments are provided with the same reference signs.

Fig . 1 shows an example of a wind turbine 1. The wind turbine 1 comprises a nacelle 3 and a tower 2. The nacelle 3 is mounted at the top of the tower 2. The nacelle 3 is mounted rotatable with regard to the tower 2 by means of a yaw bear ing. The axis of rotation of the nacelle 3 with regard to the tower 2 is referred to as the yaw axis.

The wind turbine 1 also comprises a hub 4 with three rotor blades 6 (of which two rotor blades 6 are depicted in Fig.

1). The hub 4 is mounted rotatable with regard to the nacelle 3 by means of a main bearing 7. The hub 4 is mounted rotata ble about a rotor axis of rotation 8.

The wind turbine 1 furthermore comprises a generator 5. The generator 5 in turn comprises a rotor 10 connecting the gen erator 5 with the hub 4. The hub 4 is connected directly to the generator 5, thus the wind turbine 1 is referred to as a gearless, direct-driven wind turbine. Such a generator 5 is referred as direct drive generator 5. As an alternative, the hub 4 may also be connected to the generator 5 via a gear box. This type of wind turbine 1 is referred to as a geared wind turbine. The present invention is suitable for both types of wind turbines 1.

The generator 5 is accommodated within the nacelle 3. The generator 5 is arranged and prepared for converting the rota tional energy from the hub 4 into electrical energy in the shape of an AC power.

Fig . 2 shows a wind turbine control architecture 100 accord ing to an embodiment of the present invention. The wind tur bine control architecture 100 comprises a turbine control portion 10 which is configured to control at least one compo nent of a wind turbine 1. For example, the turbine control portion 10 can be configured to control a pitch angle of the rotor blades 6 and/or an output power of the generator 5; however, the present invention is not limited thereto.

The wind turbine control architecture 100 further comprises a turbine data storage portion 11 which is configured to store a data storage container 12 therein. The turbine control por tion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 communicate with each other via an inter-process communication 13.

The turbine control portion 10 can be responsible for the da ta acquisition which collects data from the field using ex ternal devices such as I/O-stations 15 and provide the values for turbine control operations and to the turbine data stor- age portion 11. In the wind turbine control architecture 100, the data is internally transferred using the inter-process communication 13 so that the external prior art ethernet net work 113 (Fig. 3) for the data transfer can be omitted. Fur thermore, the data storage functionality is moved to the tur bine control portion 10 so that the prior art interface com puter 120 (Fig. 3) can be eliminated. The costs are thus re duced in the investment stage and also during the lifetime of the wind turbine 1.

In addition, jitter and latency on the stored data can be re duced since the physical machine storing the data is the same which is acquiring the data from the field. With an improved data resolution, the diagnostics can be further improved and real-time analytics from the field data can be realized. The possibility of data loss due to network issues is removed. Higher sampling rates further allow better data resolution and thus better analytics, and preventive maintenances can be avoided.

The turbine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 are integrally formed in a single wind turbine control device 14. Such a wind turbine control device 14 can be embodied as a computer. With the integration of the tur bine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 in a single computer, the prior art interface computer 120 (Fig. 3) can be omitted by moving its functionality into the turbine control portion 10 of the present invention. In this wind turbine control architecture 100, the data storage con tainer 12 can be realized by the turbine data storage portion 11 using a time-series data storage container design for data storage. As a result, the initial investment costs and the costs of maintenance during the lifetime of the wind turbine 1 are reduced.

Furthermore, by having both the turbine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 in the same computer 14, data loss can be avoided due to network problems or ca- bling errors. Since the turbine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 are in the same computer 14, bandwidth issues, that are usually a bottleneck in a network, can also be removed since the data does not need to leave the computer 14.

The turbine data storage portion 11 is configured to store a time-series data storage container, TSDB 12. By adding the time-series data storage container 12 to the wind turbine control architecture 100, it is possible to store operational data in the same computer 14, that is sampling the field da ta, whereby eliminating latencies in the data samples. The time-series data storage container 12 further offers ad vantages in a relatively small data space and improved real time diagnostics and troubleshooting as any event represented by a group of parameters is allocated to a predetermined time.

The time-series data storage container 12 can be implemented by a SQL database.

The turbine control portion 10 is configured to communicate with at least one external device 15, for example the I/O- stations 15 in the field.

The inter-process communication 13 is a local process commu nication. In an embodiment, the inter-process communication 13 can use a User Datagram Protocol (commonly abbreviated as UDP).

The turbine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 can use a shared memory. A shared memory can be a memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple pro grams with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Shared memory is an efficient means of passing data between programs. Depending on context, pro grams may run on a single processor or on multiple separate processors . Using memory for communication inside a single program, e.g. among its multiple threads, is also referred to as shared memory. A plurality of processes can share a certain part of a background memory such as a RAM (Random-Access Memory). For all processes involved, this shared memory area can be locat ed in their address spaces and can be read and changed with normal memory access operations. Since processors of the tur bine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 share a single view of data and the communication between their processors is faster as memory accesses to the same lo cation, the shared memory is easy to program.

As an alternative to the shared memory concept, a distributed memory and a distributed shared memory concept can also be used.

The turbine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 are configured to be setup and maintained togeth er. The costs are thus reduced during the setup and during the lifetime of the wind turbine 1.

The turbine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 are connected by a local or internal bus (not shown). Such an internal bus can comprise an internal data bus, a memory bus, a system bus or a front-side-Bus. The sys tem bus can comprise an address bus, a control bus and a data bus.

The turbine control portion 10 and the turbine data storage portion 11 are configured to directly interface data of the data storage container 12, and the turbine control portion 10 is configured to impose rules and guarantees of Quality of Service QoS parameters such as (bit) rate, reliability, pack et loss, throughput, transmission delay, availability, jitter and security of data flow. It should be noted that the term "comprising" does not ex clude other elements or steps and "a" or "an" does not ex clude a plurality. Also elements described in association with different embodiments may be combined. It should also be noted that reference signs in the claims should not be con strued as limiting the scope of the claims.