A new constraint handling method for wind farm layout optimization with lands owned by different owners

Abstract

a b s t r a c tFor wind farm optimizations with lands belonging to different owners, the traditional penalty method is highly dependent on the type of wind farm land division. The application of the traditional method can be cumbersome if the divisions are complex. To overcome this disadvantage, a new method is proposed in this paper for the first time. Unlike the penalty method which requires the addition of penalizing term when evaluating the fitness function, it is achieved through repairing the infeasible solutions before fitness evaluation. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed method on the optimization of wind farm, the optimizing results of different methods are compared for three different types of wind farm division. Different wind scenarios are also incorporated during optimization which includes (i) constant wind speed and wind direction; (ii) various wind speed and wind direction; and (iii) the more realistic Weibull distribution. Results show that the performance of the new method varies for different land plots in the tested cases. Nevertheless, it is found that optimum or at least close to optimum results can be obtained with sequential land plot study using the new method for all cases. It is concluded that satisfactory results can be achieved using the proposed method. In addition, it has the advantage of flexibility in managing the wind farm design, which not only frees users to define the penalty parameter but without limitations on the wind farm division.

BlockCopy-based operators for evolving efficient wind farm layouts

“…Less simplified versions of the problem have also been investigated. For example, both Chen et al [4] and Wang et al [22] consider variants of the problem where land-owners must be consulted and may charge a fee for participation in the wind farm project. Finding the most crucial and cost-effective plots of land on which to site the turbines is therefore an important part of the problem.…”

A novel review on optimization techniques used in wind farm modelling

“…The authors in Ref. [67] have applied wind farm optimizations for lands that are owned by different people which includes a traditional penalty technique that depends on the type of wind farm land division. The traditional approach could be quite cumbersome in the case of complex divisions, a new method is discussed in this reference.…”

Building a Digital Wind Farm

“…Some studies have included the effects of landowner costs into their objective functions [ 173 , 174 ]. These models add an extra constraint into the problem but are useful when considering wind farm siting.…”