HiL-simulation platform for the test of wind turbine controllers

With the wind turbines becoming larger and larger, the control system has become more and more important - and so has a testing environment for the control system itself. A comprehensive assessment of the wind turbine controllers in the lab reduces risks of erroneous implementations in the field and significantly shortens commissioning times. Comprehensive testing of both controller software and hardware can be done using Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) setups. In teh GL-guidelines HiL testing is mentioned as one step for establishing the required quality management procedures for load relevant wind turbine control and safety systems. In the HiL approach, the dynamics of the wind turbine, as seen by the turbine controller, are simulated in real-time on a suitable computer, which emulates all required input signals for the controller and reacts on the controller commands in a realistic way.