Adaptive control of a wind turbine by detecting a change in performance

A method of identifying power production improvements in a wind turbine, the method comprising:

• i) selecting a setting x;
• from a list of settings X1, . . . , XN;
• ii) operating the turbine according to setting Xi for a period of time t1;
• iii) recording a power output signal over t1;
• iv) repeating steps i to iii for another setting in X1, . . . , XN until all N settings have been used;
• v) repeating steps i to iv for a number of cycles c;
• vi) calculating a summarised power output for each setting over all cycles;
• vii) comparing the summarised power outputs across settings and determine whether any setting X* results in a higher power output than other settings tested.

A computer program for a controller of a wind turbine, that when executed by the controller causes the controller to perform an operation of identifying power production improvements in the wind turbine, the operation comprising:

• i) selecting a setting x;
• from a list of settings X1, . . . , XN;
• ii) operating the turbine according to setting Xi for a period of time t1;
• iii) recording a power output signal over t1;
• iv) repeating steps i to iii for another setting in X1, . . . , XN until all N settings have been used;
• v) repeating steps i to iv for a number of cycles c;
• vi) calculating a summarised power output for each setting over all cycles;
• vii) comparing the summarised power outputs across settings and determine whether any setting X* results in a higher power output than other settings tested.