| CPC F03D 13/10 (2016.05) [F05B 2230/80 (2013.01); F05B 2240/96 (2013.01); F05B 2260/8211 (2013.01)] | 11 Claims |
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1. A method for planning repowering of a wind energy plant positioned at a site, the wind energy plant comprising a plurality of original wind turbines arranged at distributed positions within the site, the method comprising:
retrieving historical data for the original wind turbines, the historical data being collected over a previous time period and during operation of the original wind turbines, wherein the historical data comprises:
first data (i) collected by load sensors in the original wind turbines during the previous time period and (ii) indicating loads experienced by the original wind turbines during operation of the original wind turbines during the previous time period;
second data (i) collected by temperature sensors in the original wind turbines during the previous time period and (ii) indicating temperatures of components of the original wind turbines during operation of the original wind turbines during the previous time period; and
third data (i) collected by sensors at the site and (ii) indicating wind conditions at the site during operation of the original wind turbines during the previous time period;
estimating, based on the first data, expected loads on replacement wind turbines for the original wind turbines arranged at the distributed positions within the site;
estimating meteorological conditions at each of the distributed positions within the site of the wind energy plant using the first data, the second data, and the third data rather than data indicating wind conditions at another site different from the site; and
planning repowering of the wind energy plant, based on the estimated meteorological conditions and the estimated expected loads on the replacement wind turbines, including planning replacement of the original wind turbines by the replacement wind turbines, wherein planning replacement of the original wind turbines by the replacement wind turbines comprises:
selecting, for a first original wind turbine of the original wind turbines that is located at a first position of the distributed positions, a first type of replacement wind turbine included in the replacement wind turbines based on the first position being downstream along a dominant wind direction indicated by the estimated meteorological conditions; and
selecting, for a second original wind turbine of the original wind turbines that is located at a second position of the distributed positions, a second type of replacement wind turbine included in the replacement wind turbines based on the second position being upstream along the dominant wind direction,
wherein the second type of replacement wind turbine is configured to extract less than a threshold amount of energy that is based on operation of the first type of replacement wind turbine.
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