Active tower damping and pitch balancing – design, simulation and field test

The tower is one of the major components in wind turbines with a contribution to the cost of energy of 8 to 12% [1]. In this overview the load situation of the tower will be described in terms of sources of loads, load components and fatigue contribution. Then two load reduction control schemes are described along with simulation and field test results. Pitch Balancing is described as a method to reduce aerodynamic asymmetry and the resulting fatigue loads. Active Tower Damping is reducing the tower oscillations by applying appropiate pitch angle changes. A field test was conducted on an Areva M5000 wind turbine.