Wind Turbine Blade Icing Detection with SCADA Data

Blade ice accretion endangers the safety of wind turbines located at high altitudes with a humid climate, particularly during winter. Timely detection of ice accretion facilitates appropriate regulation of the wind turbine, including shut down, to ensure safety. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the impact of ice accretion on wind turbine performance and relevant operational parameters. Rotor speed, output power and ambient temperature are selected as variables that can facilitate the detection of blade ice accretion. The XGBoost method is used to construct normal behavior models for output power and rotor speed respectively. A Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT) is introduced to analyze the model prediction residuals and thus identify any abnormal changes to output power and rotor speed. If significant changes are detected when the ambient temperature is below zero, an ice accretion alarm is triggered. Using real blade ice accretion data, a case study demonstrates the proposed blade ice detection method to be effective.