This paper presents the results of a field campaign investigating the performance of wake steering applied at a section of a commercial wind farm. It is the second phase of the study for which the first phase was reported in Fleming et al. (2019). The authors implemented wake steering on two turbine pairs, and compared results with the latest FLORIS (FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State) model of wake steering, showing good agreement in overall energy increase. Further, although not the original intention of the study, we also used the results to detect the secondary steering phenomenon. Results show an overall reduction in wake losses of approximately 6.6 % for the regions of operation, which corresponds to achieving roughly half of the static optimal result.
Wake steering is a form of wind farm control in which turbines use yaw offsets to affect wakes in order to yield an increase in total energy production. In this first phase of a study of wake steering at a commercial wind farm, two turbines implement a schedule of offsets. Results exploring the observed performance of wake steering are presented and some first lessons learned. For two closely spaced turbines, an approximate 14 % increase in energy was measured on the downstream turbine over a 10∘ sector, with a 4 % increase in energy production of the combined upstream–downstream turbine pair. Finally, the influence of atmospheric stability over the results is explored.