Imagine you have a big wind farm with dozens of turbines — right now each one basically does its own thing. But turbines affect each other: one steals wind from the next, and nobody's looking at the big picture of wear-and-tear versus power output versus electricity prices. TotalControl built a smart system where a central brain coordinates all the turbines at once, factoring in energy market prices, how worn-out each turbine is, and what the grid operator needs. It's like going from individual taxi drivers to a coordinated ride-sharing fleet — you get more done with less waste.
Wind farm operators lose significant revenue because their turbines are controlled individually rather than as a coordinated system. Each turbine optimizes its own output without considering how it affects neighbors' performance, current electricity prices, maintenance schedules, or grid demands. This results in higher cost of energy, unnecessary wear on components, and missed revenue from ancillary services.
The project developed hierarchical control systems that coordinate wind power plant and individual wind turbine operations simultaneously. The system integrates real-time market data, turbine health monitoring, component lifetime tracking, and grid operator requirements into a unified optimization engine that dynamically balances power production against operational costs across the entire farm.
If you are a wind farm operator dealing with suboptimal energy yields and high maintenance costs — this project developed an integrated wind power plant control system that coordinates all turbines simultaneously, balancing power production against operational costs and component lifetime. The system uses real-time market prices and turbine health data to dynamically optimize your cost of energy across the entire farm.
If you are a turbine manufacturer looking to differentiate your product with smarter controls — this project developed hierarchical control schemes that couple plant-level and turbine-level optimization. With 9 industry partners involved in validation, the control algorithms are designed for real-world integration and can be embedded into next-generation turbine controllers and SCADA systems.
If you are a grid operator or energy trader needing wind farms to provide reliable ancillary services — this project built control strategies that let wind power plants respond dynamically to grid demands while still optimizing their own economics. The system factors in current energy prices and demand for ancillary services to find the best revenue balance.
The project data does not include specific implementation cost figures. However, as a software-based control system upgrade, costs would primarily be in integration and commissioning rather than hardware. Contact the consortium for pricing based on your farm size.
The system was designed specifically for large Wind Power Plants where turbine-to-turbine interactions significantly affect performance. The control architecture is hierarchical — a plant-level controller coordinates individual turbine controllers — making it inherently scalable to farms of any size.
This was an EU-funded RIA project with 13 partners across 7 countries. IP is typically shared among consortium members per the grant agreement. DTU (Denmark) coordinated the project. Licensing terms would need to be negotiated with the relevant IP holders in the consortium.
The project developed control schemes that feed instructions from the wind power plant controller down to individual wind turbine controllers. Based on the project objective, the system assimilates available turbine and flow field information, suggesting it's designed to interface with existing SCADA and turbine control infrastructure.
The system is explicitly conditioned on grid operator demands. The plant controller factors in current energy prices, demand for ancillary services, and grid requirements to dynamically optimize the economic balance between power production and operational costs.
Based on available project data, the project focused on developing and validating advanced integrated control schemes. With 9 industry partners (69% industry ratio) in the consortium, validation likely involved industry-grade testing environments. The project produced 44 deliverables over its 4+ year duration.
The TotalControl consortium is heavily industry-driven with 9 out of 13 partners from industry (69%), complemented by 2 universities and 2 research organizations. Spread across 7 Northern European countries (Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK) — all major wind energy markets — this gives the results strong commercial relevance. DTU, Denmark's leading technical university and a global authority in wind energy research, coordinated the effort. The low SME count (just 1) and high industry ratio suggest the technology was developed with large-scale commercial deployment in mind, backed by established players in the wind energy sector.
DTU (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), Denmark — reach the wind energy research department through their website or university contact directory
Want to know if TotalControl's wind farm optimization system fits your operations? SciTransfer can connect you with the right people in the consortium — contact us for a tailored brief.
