Feedforward control for wind turbine load reduction with pseudo-LIDAR measurement

A gain-scheduled feedforward controller, based on pseudo-LIDAR (light detection and ranging) wind speed measurement, is designed to augment the baseline feedback controller for wind turbine′s load reduction in above rated operation. The pseudo-LIDAR measurement data are generated from a commercial software – Bladed using a designed sampling strategy. The nonlinear wind turbine model has been simplified and linearised at a set of equilibrium operating points. The feedforward controller is firstly developed based on a linearised model at an above rated wind speed, and then expanded to the full above rated operational envelope by employing gain scheduling strategy. The combined feedforward and baseline feedback control is simulated on a 5 MW industrial wind turbine model. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed control strategy can improve the rotor and tower load reduction performance for large wind turbines.