The time variation of wind speeds and windfarm power output in Kansas

Journal Article · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1988 · IEEE Trans. Energy Conver.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/60.4198· OSTI ID:6943656

Thomann, G C; Barfield, M J

One min average wind speeds were measured at 10, 30 and 50 m above ground level at six locations in Kansas from the summer of 1983 through the summer of 1984. Also, eight 10 m towers with anemometers were used to measure wind speeds at locations surrounding the main towers, so wind speed correlation across a hypothetical windfarm could be determined. All eight 10 m towers were placed around the main tower at Plainville from mid-April through mid-June, 1984 to obtain data across a windfarm site. Autocorrelation functions were calculated using a 1 min average wind speeds for lag times up to 32 min and using 10 min average speeds for lags up to 85 hr. The autocorrelation functions varied little with height and with location across a site. All autocorrelations showed a fast initial drop, then a fairly steady slow drop, with 10 min averaged wind speeds remaining correlated for lags up to 20 hr or longer. A diurnal variation was sometimes apparent in Summer; the major cycle appeared to have a several day period in Fall and Winter. Autocorrelation functions were also calculated for single MOD-2 wind machine power output; these functions were similar to those of wind speed except for lower correlations at small lag times. Cross-correlations as a function of separation distance were calculated for wind speed and wind machine outputs. The wind machine output cross-correlations were used to calculate the autocorrelation functions of various sized windfarms. A windfarm consisting of a 10 x 10 array of MOD-2's with .80 km by 1.61 km spacing was one example. For this windfarm the correlation of 1 min averaged output was still .9 for a 32 min lag time.

• Research Organization: Center for Energy Studies, College of Engineering, Wichita State Univ., Wichita, KS (US)
• OSTI ID: 6943656
• Journal Information: IEEE Trans. Energy Conver.; (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Trans. Energy Conver.; (United States) Vol. 3:1; ISSN ITCNE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
170100* -- Wind Energy-- Resources & Availability (Climatology)
170604 -- Wind Energy Engineering-- Site Characteristics
ANEMOMETERS
CALCULATION METHODS
CORRELATIONS
DATA ANALYSIS
ENERGY SOURCES
FEDERAL REGION VII
KANSAS
MACHINERY
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NORTH AMERICA
POWER
POWER GENERATION
POWER PLANTS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
TIME DEPENDENCE
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
USA
VARIATIONS
VELOCITY
WIND
WIND POWER
WIND POWER PLANTS
WIND TURBINES