WFD ParkOptimizer
Summary of ParkOptimizer
ParkOptimizer processes WindSim results to map exclusion areas of turbulence, flow inclination, speed and extreme wind as defined by the IEC 61400-1 standard. With this information, you can design IEC compliant park layouts from the start and choose the appropriate turbine class.
ParkOptimizer uses innovative optimization algorithms to find optimal turbine layouts, taking the IEC exclusion areas as constraints. It provides not only one but a whole range of optimal layouts for each project size, which allows you to perform techno-economic optimization that maximises the profits of your projects.
Layout optimization
ParkOptimizer comes with several optimization algorithms for park layouts that maximize energy yield for a defined range of 1..N turbines, differentiated by fast layouts and an additional wake adjustment algorithm.
Fast layouts include:
- A heuristic algorithm using simulated annealing. Provides good results, but does not guarantee optimum.
- A mixed integer relaxation algorithm that guarantees global optimum (available as a special edition).
Wake adjustment: the simulated annealing algorithm can be run with the N.O. Jensen wake model. Benchmarking against industry standard tools such as WindPRO shows results that are at least as good. ParkOptimizer can optionally include effective turbulence Ieff as a constraint.
IEC exclusion areas
WindSim simulation results provide all the necessary information — shear, flow inclination, turbulence, extreme wind and terrain inclination. ParkOptimizer processes these results to create maps of exclusion areas that do not comply with the IEC 61400-1 standard, used as constraints in the layout optimization.
Editing layouts
After selecting the optimal size, ParkOptimizer provides tools for the final manual adjustments to the layout, wind, energy and exclusion maps.
Economic optimization
Project size highly influences profitability in complex terrain. More turbines reduce unit costs, but increase wake losses. Using results from the layout optimization and financial data, ParkOptimizer helps you select the park size that maximizes your profits.
Energy curve
A novel feature of ParkOptimizer is the Energy curve E(n) — the total energy of each project size n, where n is the number of turbines. For each project size there is a corresponding optimized layout. The energy curve helps determine the optimal size of projects, in particular when considering project risk.
Validation
ParkOptimizer is an ongoing development of WindFarmDesigns in collaboration with WindSim and represents state of the art wind & site assessment in complex terrain. We have analyzed more than 60 sites in highly complex terrain, and the methods have been tested against measurement data in more than 25 locations.
Full feature list
- Layout optimization
- IEC exclusion areas
- Turbulence maps
- Extreme wind maps
- Economic optimization
