FLORIS: FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State
FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) is an open-source wind plant optimization tool complemented by the FLORIS-based Analysis for Supervisory Control and data acquisition (FLASC) tool.
Mini Symposium at Wind Energy Science Conference
To learn more about FLORIS and FLASC, including recent updates to the tools, join a mini symposium at the Wind Energy Science Conference in Glasgow, United Kingdom, on Open-Source Wind Farm Flow Model Libraries, co-organized by NREL and the Technical University of Denmark and Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology.
NREL's capabilities in wind farm control span the process of designing, implementing, and validating wind farm controllers. NREL's real-time wind farm control strategies enable entire plants to adjust to changing wind directions and other conditions via data sharing among turbines.
An essential tool, FLORIS enables existing wind energy facilities to improve productivity and future projects to maximize profits by optimizing flow control strategies, like wake steering. At NREL, researchers use FLORIS to help our partners develop site-specific, optimized flow control strategies that increase productivity, and the tool's performance analysis capabilities demonstrate the impacts of implementing controls and identify potential areas for improvement.
FLASC debuted with FLORIS Version 3.0 (v3.0) and can be used for field data postprocessing, model analysis, and FLORIS-to-SCADA (a companion, open-source repository) data comparison.
The latest version of the open-source FLORIS platform is available for download and collaborative development. In addition, NREL's flow control experts are accessible to academia, manufacturers, developers, and small businesses through multiple partnering formats.
FLORIS is developed by NREL and Delft University of Technology with support from the U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office. Funding was also provided by the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium.
Latest Version
The latest updates were released in May 2023 for FLORIS Version 3.4 (v3.4) and FLASC Version 1.3 (v1.3). These major improvements and updates increase these tools’ capabilities and improve user experience.
To update FLORIS to v3.4, the team:
- Enabled floating offshore wind turbine modeling
- Released a new model for wakes and wake steering
- Added the ability to compare wind velocity predictions to measurements or other simulations
- Improved heterogenous inflow velocities and visualizations
- Added a new method to grid points on turbine rotor planes to give a more accurate result without increasing computational cost.
- Added new classes to enable users to compare turbine parameters in the existing and user-provided wind turbine library
- Fixed bugs related to error messages.
For installation and upgrade instructions, refer to the Installation section in the installation documentation.
To update FLASC to v1.3, the team:
- Added new examples that demonstrate how to use FLASC tools with SCADA data from real field-based wake steering tests at commercial wind farms (with input from Bart Doekemeijer)
- Improved data filtering and associated visualization
- Included methods to determine the impact turbines have on each other.
FLASC, which is not yet available with PyPl or Conda, must be upgraded locally. The FLASC online documentation has instructions on upgrading your local installation.
These updates build on FLORIS v3.0, which was released in February 2022 as a major redesign and enhancement of the open-source software to allow for faster, more accurate, and more varied computations with several significant improvements for researchers, manufacturers, developers, and small businesses. New algorithms introduced in v3 enable improved memory usage and reduce the number of mathematical operations required. FLORIS also leverages a larger portion of a computer's processor to perform multiple mathematical operations at the same time. A complete redesign of the software architecture makes FLORIS v3 better modularized to enable collaboration and adoption of modern software development standards.
The new cumulative curl model, developed in collaboration with the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium, improves the accuracy of FLORIS' wake models for large offshore wind farms. This includes a new cumulative model for wake superposition.
The new framework of FLORIS Version 3.0 includes heterogeneous inflow specification allowing for different wind speeds in three dimensions and every wind direction. The software also supports mixed-turbine models and includes a library of reference wind turbines. The combination of these two features enables the optimization of both turbine type and turbine location within a wind plant.
If you have not yet upgraded from FLORIS Version 2.0 to Version 3.0, see the instructions in the installation documentation.
Learn about past updates:
FLORIS Version 3.3 Updates Announcement
FLORIS Version 3.2 and FLASC Version 1.1 Updates Announcement
FLORIS Version 3.1 Minor Updates Announcement
FLORIS Version 3.0 News Article
FLORIS Version 3.0 Major Updates and FLASC Launch Announcement.
Future Work
Ongoing work continues to evaluate and develop ways to improve FLORIS and FLASC to enable coupling with hybrid power plant models, build controller modeling, improve wake modeling, and improve user experience with increased computation speed and potential web-based dashboards.
Engage With the Community
The team is open to and appreciative of user feedback. If you have input on the tool or would like to receive notifications of updates, version launches, and more, please access the community discussion on GitHub or email the team contact.
Explore other sections of the GitHub site to report issues, announce projects, discuss ideas, share uses of the tool(s), and post in the Q&A section.
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