For reliable and affordable design and operation of wind power plants that also consider system-level stability and security as well as the surrounding natural and social environment, coordinated wind farm control (WFC) and asset management solutions play an important role. Additionally, given the urgency of growth implied by ambitious decarbonisation targets, artificial intelligence (AI) and other digitalisation concepts are major accelerators of the energy transition and a key enabler for integrating the processes and prospects of WFC technology into the operation and design of the future energy systems. To support wind farm owners/operators to make better decisions for system-wide optimised performance, TWAIN’s concept pivots on a full-integration of WFC at five different levels: 1) integration of multi-source and multi-format data of varied nature from wind farms in different life stages; 2) AI-enabled integration of multi-disciplinary processes and phenomena affecting the wind farm operation; 3) integration of multi-objective prospects of WFC to assess the true added value of a certain operation mode; 4) integration of multi-level controllers and scenario analyses in decision support provision for harmonious co-existence of WPPs with their environment and society via optimised operation and design; and 5) integration of wider audience to TWAIN outcomes. TWAIN decision support environment is a digital environment architected for multi-source data integration and optimised computing, which contains a set of toolboxes with the critical analytical steps to operate a wind farm effective and efficiently. It is oriented to wind power asset management by WF owners/operators, considering as asset the WT and its components within a WF.

The FarmConners project supports the implementation and industrialisation of Wind Farm Control (WFC) as an additional feature for the development and operation of wind power plants. It brings together actors in all relevant fields connected with the market uptake of WFC: research institutes, industry and certification agencies. FarmConners will coordinate a reliable assessment of the WFC possibilities, promising more green power from existing and upcoming assets for the price of a software update. WFC technology brings a collaborative approach to wind power plant design and operation, mitigating the losses due to turbine-turbine interaction within the plant. Accordingly, it promises an increase in power production and a decrease in structural loads while providing better integration of wind power in the grid. Additionally, it enables better revenue management, especially for the upcoming flexible electricity markets, making wind power “market fit”, which in turn decreases the project cost and increases the share of the leading green power source. FarmConners will provide a unique platform for the marketability of this feature; bringing the state-of-the-art achievements, ongoing projects and industrial interest together to remove barriers for commercial implementation of WFC.