Overplanting in offshore wind power plants in different regulatory regimes

Abstract

AbstractThe development of offshore wind farms depends on many technical and economic parameters, which requires an integrated planning approach. Some parameters can be controlled by the wind farm developer, and some are determined by the regulatory authorities. Others can be outside control of both. One aspect of optimizing wind farm development is overplanting, which represents the capacity optimization between installed generation capacity and transmission capacity, which allows for a minor share of energy curtailment to increase the overall value of the farm. Quantifying this value also depends on the regulatory framework, which is analyzed here by comparing United Kingdom and Danish conditions. Using a discounted cash flow model, we find that UK conditions are favorable to overplanting from the developer perspective, where the benefit of using the transmission cable more efficiently supports overplanting. In the Danish case, the private‐economic incentive to overplant is minor due to the constraint of linking subsidies to a certain energy output. On the other hand, when the cost of turbines declines relative to transmission system costs, overplanting tends to become more attractive. This is mostly the case when installing wind farms further offshore compared to projects closer to the coast, which has been exerted more and more exerted in the recent years. In a socioeconomic perspective, overplanting is also a viable method to optimize the wind farm technically and economically, if the cost of the additional turbines is less than the value of the additional generation that can be fed into the grid by the transmission line.This article is categorized under: Wind Power > Economics and Policy Wind Power > Systems and Infrastructure