PhD Position / Research Assistant Multi-Objective Wind Farm Control

About us

Wind energy research at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg has gained international recognition by its integration into ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hannover and Bremen and the national Wind Energy Research Alliance of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) and ForWind.

At ForWind, we maintain and value collaboration between our research groups and partner institutions such as the European Academy of Wind Energy members. In Oldenburg, our 50 researchers from physics, meteorology and engineering are collaborating at the WindLab centred on wind physics. Our mission is to develop an improved understanding of atmospheric and wind power plant flow physics required to serve the global demand for clean and affordable electricity.

Therefore, we conduct laboratory experiments, free-field measurements and HPC-based numerical simulations. Our research facilities comprise three turbulent wind tunnels with fully controlled model wind turbines and wind farms of different sizes, various equipment for free-field measurements at on- and offshore wind farms and a high-performance computing cluster for atmospheric flow simulations. We have direct access to the DLR research wind farm WiValdi (https://windenergy-researchfarm.com), where among others, control experiments on two utility‑scale wind turbines are conducted. Almost all our projects combine analyses at more than one of these infrastructures.

Further information is available at www.forwind.de/en/ and https://uol.de/en/physics/research/we-sys.

Your tasks

With your strong background in control engineering, you will be designing control algorithms for wind turbines and wind farms that can accommodate various objectives, from improving the grid integration, power maximisation, to load reduction. You will be collaborating with other group members working on wind farm control, high‑fidelity simulations, inflow modelling and estimation. Furthermore, you will participate in planning of wind tunnel and field experiments for validation of developed control algorithms.

Depending on your preferences and previous experiences, your tasks will be related to one of the following projects:

Project A

• Loads‑aware wind farm control for addressing different control objectives
• Adaptation of the control algorithm to changing wind farm characteristics, operational goals and load limits
• Integration of wind farm control within the control framework for the lifetime optimisation of the wind farm value

Project B

• Wind turbine and wind farm control in complex terrains
• Uncertainty quantification of measurement signals and robust wind farm control
• Improved integration of wind turbine control with the wind farm controller
• Improved grid integration, including short‑term and mid‑term power boosting

Additionally, you will support the group in its organisational and teaching activities.

Your profile

Requirements for employment include:

• a qualifying university degree (diploma or master’s) in Control, Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Physical Sciences, Wind Energy, Renewable Energy or equivalent
• aptitude and willingness to pursue a PhD with numerical and experimental aspects
• profound knowledge of control engineering
• extensive experience in programming with at least Matlab or Python
• high motivation and ability to jointly work on applied research topics
• very good English skills

Desired (but not mandatory) qualifications are:

• experience with wind energy: wind turbine dynamics, wind turbine control, wake interaction, wind farm control
• experience abroad of several months during the school, study period or employment after graduation
• and good German skills

We offer

We offer you the opportunity to develop your scientific career in a young and lively academic environment. You will be working in the WindLab – one of the university's most modern office and lab spaces – while you will also have the opportunity to do flexible and mobile work. Your pathway towards the PhD is actively supported by, e.g.,

• structured supervision of the PhD process
• multidisciplinary cooperation with other researchers at ForWind and Fraunhofer IWES in Oldenburg
• direct collaboration with industry while maintaining the links with our national and international partners in academia, including a PhD network
• optional secondment at an international research institute
• development of personal, scientific, and teaching skills through an individual training programme and selected teaching tasks
• opportunities to present scientific results at international conferences and through peer‑reviewed publications to extend your specific network

Further, the university fosters a family‑friendly working environment and offers a family service centre and on‑campus children's daycare.

The employment is initially limited to three years with the intention of further prolonging it up to four years to facilitate a PhD. The payment is based on the collective agreement for the public service in the German federal states, TV‑L E13, for a 75% position.

Our standards

The University of Oldenburg is dedicated to increase the percentage of female employees in the field of science. Therefore, female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. In accordance to § 21 Section 3 NHG, female candidates with equal qualifications will be preferentially considered. Applicants with disabilities will be given preference in case of equal qualification.