Interdependant and Calculated Variables for Windpower model

Hi Julius,

The interdependent variables for the wind power model (Windpower module in PySAM) depend on what options you choose. Can you tell me what variables you want to modify for your analysis so I can help you identify the interdependent variables?

One example is the system nameplate capacity ('system_capacity') which depends on the turbine capacity and number of turbines. For example, to set 'system_capacity' to 5 MW for a system with two 2.5 MW turbines, you would need to set the values of three variables (you can't just change the value of 'system_capacity'):
Also, can you tell me where those broken links are so we can fix them?

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Julius,

The description of 'wind_turbine_hub_ht' in the documentation of the Windpower module lists two dependent variables:
'wind_turbine_powercurve_powerout' and 'wind_turbine_powercurve_windspeeds'. This is because there is a relationship between the wind turbine power curve data and the height above the ground determined by 'wind_turbine_hub_ht'. If you change the turbine hub height, you may also need to change the power curve data. Depending on the purpose of your analysis, you could choose to ignore this relationship.

Similarly, the description of 'wind_farm_xCoordinates' and 'wind_farm_yCoordinates' mentions a dependence on rotor diameter: The turbines should be spaced to minimize wake effects and avoid the risk of blades from neighboring turbines touching each other.

And, yes, the Wind Turbines.csv turbine library file has the power curve data, power rating, and rotor diameter data you need to model the turbines in the library. Note that the power curve data is separated by pipes '|', so you'll need to consider that when you process the data. The library file does not include turbine hub heights. The turbine name and IEC class are not inputs to the Windpower model, so you can ignore those parameters.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Julius,

The wind farm sizing options are part of the SAM user interface and are not available in SSC or PySAM.

SAM's user interface uses the LK scripting language for these kinds of functions: sam.nrel.gov/lk-script.html

The LK source for the "Specify desired farm size" is here: github.com/NREL/SAM/blob/1ed59e9b181cf1f23d7ac1f696b5cb91805c7936/deploy/runtime/ui/Wind%20Farm%20Specifications.json#L2115

That's a bit difficult to read because of the '\t' escape characters, but hopefully you can copy the code to a text editor and remove those to make it easier to read.

You should be able to use that as a basis to write your own code on Python to do the turbine layout.

Best regards,
Paul.