access icon openaccess Thermal and economic optimisation of windfarm export cable

This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Received 26/10/2018, Accepted 05/12/2018, Published 15/03/2019

A method is proposed for the economic optimisation of offshore wind cable connections through utilising the thermal inertia of the cable system. Taking account of expected wind yields, turbine reliability, and the dynamic thermal environment, the method determines the economically optimal number of turbines for a given export cable system. Analysis has shown that, providing means to actively curtail generation output so as to thermally protect the cable are in place, it is possible to reduce the cost of energy delivered to shore by up to £1/MWhr through the use of ‘over-planting’, i.e. building a wind farm that is larger than the continuous rating of its export cables.

Inspec keywords: power generation economics; power generation reliability; wind turbines; power generation protection; cost reduction; power cables; offshore installations; wind power plants; optimisation

Other keywords: thermal inertia; dynamic thermal environment; wind farm export cable system; cost reduction; cable protection; offshore wind cable connections; economic optimisation; thermal optimisation; turbine reliability

Subjects: Power system protection; Wind power plants; Power cables; Optimisation techniques; Power system management, operation and economics; Reliability

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http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/joe.2018.9272
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