Citation |
Pillai, A.C., Chick, J., Johanning, L., Khorasanchi, M. and de Laleu. V. Offshore wind farm electrical cable layout optimization, Engineering Optimization, 47 (12): 1689-1708, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305215X.2014.992892. Cite this using DataCite |
Abstract |
This article explores an automated approach for the efficient placement of substations and the design of an inter-array electrical collection network for an offshore wind farm through the minimization of the cost. To accomplish this, the problem is represented as a number of sub-problems that are solved in series using a combination of heuristic algorithms. The overall problem is first solved by clustering the turbines to generate valid substation positions. From this, a navigational mesh pathfinding algorithm based on Delaunay triangulation is applied to identify valid cable paths, which are then used in a mixed-integer linear programming problem to solve for a constrained capacitated minimum spanning tree considering all realistic constraints. The final tree that is produced represents the solution to the inter-array cable problem. This method is applied to a planned wind farm to illustrate the suitability of the approach and the resulting layout that is generated.
This work was partly funded via IDCORE, the Industrial Doctorate Centre for Offshore Renewable Energy, which trains research engineers whose work in conjunction with sponsoring companies aims to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind, wave and tidal-current technologies |