System for operating a wind turbine using cumulative load histograms based on actual operation thereof

A system for operating a wind turbine, the system comprising:

• a controller configured to implement a plurality of operations, the plurality of operations comprising:
• determining one or more loading metrics or functions thereof, and determining one or more travel metrics or functions thereof, for one or more components of the wind turbine during operation of the wind turbine;
• generating at least one cumulative load histogram for the one or more components using the one or more loading metrics or functions thereof and the one or more travel metrics or functions thereof during operation of the wind turbine, the generating comprising:
• defining a range and a bin region of the at least one cumulative load histogram;
• defining a first loading metric of the one or more loading metrics or functions thereof and a first travel metric of the one or more travel metrics or functions thereof for the at least one cumulative load histogram;
• during operation of the wind turbine, updating the at least one cumulative load histogram using the first loading metric and the first travel metric by adding the first travel metric to the bin region of the at least one cumulative load histogram;
• and
• adaptively changing at least one of the range or the bin region based on on-going operational data of the wind turbine;
• applying a life model of the one or more components to the at least one cumulative loading histogram to determine an actual damage accumulation for the one or more components of the wind turbine to date;
• and
• implementing a corrective action for the wind turbine based on the damage accumulation.