Control of active power reserve in a wind-farm

1. A system of active power reserve regulation in a wind farm having a plurality of wind turbines, comprising:

a first subset of the plurality of wind turbines operating at a maximum available power output;

a second subset of the plurality of wind turbines operating in accord with active power limitation commands;

a wind-farm controller which interacts with the plurality of wind turbines to manage a reserve of active power using the active power limitation commands and which estimates a maximum amount of available active power generated by the plurality of wind turbines based on the first subset of the plurality of wind turbines;

an active power wind-turbine controller in each of the plurality of wind-turbines, wherein each active power wind turbine controller is configured to limit a maximum amount of available active power generated by a corresponding one of the plurality of wind turbines according to the active power limitation commands received from the wind-farm controller for managing the reserve of active power.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a controlled load which receives active power from the wind-turbines, said active power being part of the active power reserve.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the controlled load is used as an electric load or as electrical energy storage.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the controlled load is an electrolyzer, a flywheel, or other type of energy storage device.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the active power reserve wind-farm controller transmits an active reserve mode command to the plurality of wind-turbines so that the first subset of wind turbines operate with no external power output limitations and the second subset of wind-turbines operate at less than a maximum active power output, according to the active power limitation command received from the wind farm controller, to contribute to the total reserve of active power in the wind-farm.

6. The system of claim 2 , wherein the active power reserve wind-farm controller determines an actual power consumption of the controlled load and determines an active power limitation command for the second subset of wind turbines based on the actual power consumption of the controlled load and the active power reserve setpoint.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the first subset of wind-turbines, in response to the active power reserve mode command, operate with no constraints related to the wind farm active power reserve controller, and maintain said maximum active power output unless additional constraints unrelated to the reserve of active power limit the active power output.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the second subset of wind-turbines, in response to the active power limitation command, do not exceed a commanded percentage of their rated active power.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein a number of wind-turbines in the second subset of wind turbines is varied based on a difference between an actual value of the total reserve of active power in the wind farm and a target value of the total reserve of active power in the wind farm.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the second subset of wind turbines is varied based on the active power reserve setpoint.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the second subset of wind turbines is varied based on a ratio between a mean active power output from the first subset of wind turbines and a mean active power output from the second subset of wind turbines.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the ratio is maintained between an upper threshold and a lower threshold.

13. The system of claim 1 , where the first and second subsets comprise different wind-turbines among the plurality of wind turbines.