Cooperative Wind Farm Control with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Knowledge-Assisted Learning

Cooperative wind farm control is a complex problem due to wake effect, and it is hard to find the proper model. Reinforcement learning can find the optimal policy in a dynamic environment using 'trial and error,' but may damage the machine and cause high cost during the learning process. In order to address this challenge, this article proposes the knowledge-assisted reinforcement learning framework by combining the low-fidelity analytical model with a reinforcement learning framework. Moreover, the knowledge-assisted deep deterministic policy gradient (KA-DDPG) algorithm and three kinds of knowledge-assisted learning methods are proposed based on the framework. The proposed methods are tested in nine different scenarios of WFSim. The simulation results show that the KA-DDPG algorithm can reach the maximum power output and ensure safety during learning. In addition, the learning cost is reduced by accelerating the learning process. © 2020 IEEE.