Economics- and Reliability-Based Design for an Offshore Wind Farm

Abstract

This study examines the optimal layout of an offshore wind farm for a fixed number of wind turbines (WTs) and a fixed area of coverage. After the optimal layout of the turbines is determined, the topology of the cable connections is optimized. The wind decay that is associated with the wake effect is considered and the charged system search algorithm is utilized to obtain the optimal WT layout that maximizes the power output of the wind farm. The Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program software is utilized to verify the optimality of the layout. Mixed integer linear programming is utilized to optimize the topology of radial cable connections. The system reliabilities of the proposed layout and the traditional regular layout are considered. Finally, the optimal wind-farm layout that maximizes wind power output, minimizes cable cost, and maximizes reliability is obtained.