The AWAKEN benchmarks

The American Wake Experiment (AWAKEN) is a multi-institutional field campaign focused on gathering much-needed observations of wind farm-atmosphere interactions. These interactions are responsible for a large portion of the uncertainty in wind plant modeling tools that are used to represent wind plant performance both prior to construction and during operation, and can negatively impact wind energy profitability. The AWAKEN field campaign will provide benchmarking data for validation, ultimately improving modeling and lowering these uncertainties.

Benchmarking phases

For each benchmark, we envision three phases:

1. The baseline

   Modelers leverage the limited inputs and their own best practices to simulate the processes of interest.

2. Model improvement with inflow observations

   The participants leverage additional inflow observations and what learnt in Phase 1 to simulate the processes of interest.

3. Model improvement with inflow and wake observations

   The participants leverage the additional wake observations and what learnt in Phase 2 to simulate the processes of interest.