Control development for floating wind

Control of a floating wind turbine has proven to be challenging, but essential for lowering the cost of floating wind energy. Topic of a recent joint R&D project by GustoMSC, MARIN and ECN, is the concept design and verification with coupled simulations and model tests of the GustoMSC Tri-Floater. Only using an integral design approach, including mooring and control design, a cost effective system can be obtained. In this project, ECN developed a general floating wind turbine control strategy and applied this in a case study to the GustoMSC Tri-Floater and the OC3Hywind spar, both equipped with the NREL 5MW RWT. The designed controller ensures stable operation, while maintaining proper speed and power regulation. The motions of the floating support are reduced and substantial load reduction has been achieved.