Kite Tether Force Control: Reducing Power Fluctuations for Utility-Scale Airborne Wind Energy Systems

This is the final presentation for my MSc graduation from 2023-06-30. It's about reducing power fluctuations of utility-scale airborne wind energy systems using feedforward winch control and a novel kite tether force control concept. The first increases the minimum power while the latter reduces the peak power. More on this work can be found in my report which is available at: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2a0b5cb1-ab4d-44bf-b6b6-929c612941fb Summary of this presentation: Airborne wind energy is an emerging technology that aims to capture the stronger and more steady high altitude winds using tethered kites. For utility-scale, ground-gen, fixed-wing systems such as MegAWES, the kite’s mass influences the apparent wind speed during the trajectory resulting in a fluctuating power output. Power fluctuations need to be smoothed before power can be transmitted to the grid. Larger fluctuations requires larger generators and auxiliary systems that increase the cost and environmental impact. The main contributions of this work are threefold. First, an analysis of winch inertia and radius shows that the winch sizing plays an important role in power output and tether force overshoot. Second, the minimum power during the traction phase is increased from −4.7MW (consuming power) to 3.5MW by using a feedforward winch controller. Third, the peak power is reduced from 20.0MW to 9.8MW by using a kite tether force control concept while minimally affecting mean power