Baseline Results and Future Plans for the NREL Controls Advanced Research Turbine

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has commissioned a highly modified Westinghouse 600 kW wind turbine as its Controls Advanced Research Turbine (CART). The capabilities of the original turbine have been increased through the installation of a high-speed data-acquisition and control system, a wide-bandwidth variable-speed generation system, and a high-speed independent blade pitch system. This turbine's purpose is to field-validate new control paradigms developed by NREL, universities, and industry and to provide data to validate new codes that have been developed for controls design. Testing on the turbine began in late 2001, and baseline data were collected during the 2001 - 2002 wind season. During this time, the turbine was operated in both constant and variable-speed modes. Baseline performance and loads data are presented here. Results indicate that the new turbine systems are performing well and sufficient data have been collected so that comparisons to more sophisticated control algorithms can be conducted. During the 2002 - 2003 wind season, several new algorithms were tested on the turbine. These include an "Optimally Tracking Rotor" algorithm proposed before, an adaptive power tracking algorithm and several full-state feedback systems. General results from these algorithms are presented here with detailed results presented elsewhere.