Wind speed is an important factor in wind power generation. Wind speed forecasting is complicated due to its highly nonstationary character. Therefore, this paper presents a hybrid framework for the development of multi-step wind speed forecasting based on variational model decomposition and convolutional neural networks. In the first step of signal pre-processing, the variational model decomposition approach decomposes the wind speed data into several independent modes under different center pulsation. The vibrations of decomposed modes are useful for accurate wind speed forecasting. Then, the influence of different numbers of modes and the input length of the convolutional neural network are discussed to select the optimal value through calculating the errors. During the regression step, each mode is treated as a channel that constitutes the input of the forecasting model. The convolution operations in convolutional neural networks extract helpful local features in each mode and the relationships between modes for forecasting. We take advantage of the convolutional neural network and directly output multi-step forecasting results. In order to show the forecasting and generalization performance of the proposed method, wind seed data from two wind farms in Inner Mongolia, China and Sotavento Galicia, Spain with different statistical information were employed. Some classic statistical approaches were adopted for comparison. The experimental results show the satisfactory performance for all of the methods in single-step forecasting and the advantages of using decomposed modes. The root mean squared errors range from 0.79 m/s to 1.64 m/s for all of the methods. In the case of multi-step forecasting, our proposed method achieves an outstanding improvement compared with the other methods. The root mean squared error of our proposed method was 1.30 m/s while the worst performance of the other methods was 9.68 m/s. The proposed method is able to directly predict the variation trend of wind speed based on historical data with minor errors. Hence, the proposed forecasting schemes can be utilized for wind speed multi-step forecasting to cost-effectively manage wind power generation.

With the fast development of artificial intelligence techniques, data-driven modeling approaches are becoming hotspots in both academic research and engineering practice. This paper proposes a novel data-driven T-S fuzzy model to precisely describe the complicated dynamic behaviors of pumped storage generator motor (PSGM). In premise fuzzy partition of the proposed T-S fuzzy model, a novel variable-length tree-seed algorithm based competitive agglomeration (VTSA-CA) algorithm is presented to determine the optimal number of clusters automatically and improve the fuzzy clustering performances. Besides, in order to promote modeling accuracy of PSGM, the input and output formats in the T-S fuzzy model are selected by an economical parameter controlled auto-regressive (CAR) model derived from a high-order transfer function of PSGM considering the distributed components in the water diversion system of the power plant. The effectiveness and superiority of the T-S fuzzy model for PSGM under different working conditions are validated by performing comparative studies with both practical data and the conventional mechanistic model.

This paper presents an investigation on the undesirable vibration of an oblique-stud stator frame in a large hydropower generator by means of experimental and finite element (FE) analysis. First, field experimental tests were performed, and the results indicate that the main vibration component comes from electromagnetic factors. Then, a 2D-magnetic and 3D-mechanical FE model was developed to investigate the vibration of the stator frame under the action of electromagnetic forces. A set of contrast models was established to study the effects of different kinds of eccentricity and different structures. Based on the comparative analysis between the results of simulations and experimental tests, it can be inferred that the abnormal vibration is generated because of the lack of stiffness in the upper part of structure and the existence of dynamic eccentricity in the rotor–stator system. In addition, the structural simulation analysis shows that the flexible designed oblique-stud stator frame is relatively vulnerable against the electromagnetic forces.