In this paper, an approach based on a genetic algorithm is presented in order to optimize the connection topology of an offshore wind farm network. The main objective is to introduce a technique of coding a network topology to a binary string. The first advantage is that the optimal connections of both middleand high-voltage alternating-current grids are considered, i.e., the radial clustering of wind turbines, the number and locations of the offshore electrical substations, and the number of high-voltage cables. The second improvement consists of removing infeasible network configurations as designs with crossing cables and thereby reduces the search space of solutions.Index Terms-Genetic algorithm (GA), network planning, offshore wind farm (OWF), optimization, Prim's algorithm.
Abstract:Ocean energy holds out great potential for supplying remote maritime areas with their energy requirements, where the grid size is often small and unconnected to a continental grid. Thanks to their high maturity and competitive price, solar and wind energies are currently the most used to provide electrical energy. However, their intermittency and variability limit the power supply reliability. To solve this drawback, storage systems and Diesel generators are often used. Otherwise, among all marine renewable energies, tidal and wave energies are reaching an interesting technical level of maturity. The better predictability of these sources makes them more reliable than other alternatives. Thus, combining different renewable energy sources would reduce the intermittency and variability of the total production and so diminish the storage and genset requirements. To foster marine energy integration and new multisource system development, an up-to-date review of projects already carried out in this field is proposed. This article first presents the main characteristics of the different sources which can provide electrical energy in remote maritime areas: solar, wind, tidal, and wave energies. Then, a review of multi-source systems based on marine energies is presented, concerning not only industrial projects but also concepts and research work. Finally, the main advantages and limits are discussed.
Offshore wind energy is a promising solution thanks to its best performance of production. However its development leads to many technical and especially economic challenges among them the electrical grid topology attracts a large investment. In this paper, our objective is to minimize a part of this total investment which represents the initial cost of the middle voltage cables in the internal network with different cross sections. An approach based on Genetic Algorithm is developed to find the best topology to connect all wind turbines and substations. The proposed model initially accepts all possible configurations: radial, star, ring, and tree. The results prove that the optimization model can be used for designing the electrical architecture of the internal network of an offshore wind farm.Index Terms-Genetic algorithm, middle voltage grid, offshore wind farm, optimization, wind energy.
So far, only few studies have addressed the techno-economic optimization of an export cable sizing in the specific case of wave energy farms. However, in these works, the cable current rating is determined based on conservative steady-state conditions regarding the farm current output whereas considering dynamic conditions may be more relevant in the case of wave energy applications. However, this implies developing and using dedicated electro-thermal models, which poses a challenge regarding the determination of the modeling fineness level to be adopted for such studies. Hence, this paper presents several numerical models, the most refined of which is compared with experimental data, as well as well as preliminary cable sizing studies. Contrary to previous works in this field, the fluctuating nature of wave energy is considered here, thus allowing for more realistic results.
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