New Thinking for Power Performance Testing

Power performance testing (PPT), also known as ‘power curve verification’ or ‘power curve testing’, is an on-site field test of operating wind turbines to verify the OEM’s provided power curve(s) defined in the project’s turbine supply agreement (TSA). The testing is prescribed under industry standards, namely the IEC 61400-12 series of standards, and further defined by the OEM in the TSA. Typically, it is the owner/operator who is responsible for PPT implementation, but the main driver for the test is financial investors seeking assurance that their investment will perform as expected. The traditional and typical method of PPT requires installing a meteorological (met) tower in a location that is not affected by the wakes of the operating wind turbines. The wind data collected from this free-stream, unwaked met tower is understood to be representative of the wind characteristics of its associated wind turbine. The measured power curve is determined by concurrent measurements of hub height, wind speed and turbine power output.