Thermal and economic optimisation of windfarm export cable

Economic performance of an overplanted offshore wind farm under several commitment strategies and dynamic thermal ratings of submarine export cable

“…However, an OWF presents a variable generation profile during its lifespan [73]. In fact, OWFs may produce at full power only 100 hours per year [74]. Moreover, due to the soil thermal inertia (depending on the cable installation, soil characteristics, burial depth along the cable route and laying configurations of the cable system), the export cable temperature may be kept far below 90℃.…”

“…However, this effect on energy curtailments will be reassessed in the following studies considering overplanting rates higher than 4%. Pilgrim and Kelly [74] suggested a method to find the optimal number of wind turbines considering the DTR of the submarine export cable. They considered the minimization of the cable contribution to the LCOE and showed that the LCOE could be reduced by £1/MWh (the generation costs of OWF are assumed as £70/MWh) while increasing the wind farm production by 19%.…”

Export cable rating optimisation by wind power ramp and thermal risk estimation

“…Thus, the use of static rating cable limits along the fluctuating output power present in offshore cables leads to much lower conductor temperature profiles than in conventional cable installations [4]. Given that the cost of submarine export cables represents a significant part of the CAPEX of a wind farm, the export cable capacity utilisation is an essential part of project cost optimisation [5].…”

Cable Thermal Risk Estimation for Overplanted Wind Farms

“…Wind farm export cables face intermittent power generation which can lead to low cable temperatures and under-utilisation of cable capacity. Given that export cables represent a significant percentage of the capital expenditure (CAPEX) of an offshore wind farm, optimisation of cable size is essential to reduce the levelised cost of energy (LCoE) [4]. Because of the low temperature profiles found in submarine export cables, a common practice in offshore wind farm projects is wind farm overplanting (WFO) and the consideration of load cycles at a design stage in order to optimise cable sizing/rating [3], [5], [6].…”

“…The extra installed capacity captures more energy at low wind speeds while power curtailment is applied when high speeds generate full power over long durations. Although loading the cable over the conservative continuous rating limits could introduce the possibility of exceeding the cable temperature limits, for projects in which it is necessary to reduce LCoE a balance between optimisation of cable utilisation and system margins can be achieved [4], [7].…”