Posters

Abstract

Reducing the total costs associated to offshore wind farms (OWF) is crucial to limit economic risks and attract new investors. One of the most notable part of the total cost is associated to the electricity exportation, which is highly influenced by the strategy defined to connect the turbines between them to define the wind farm layout. Due to the high number of possible combinations that exist, it is computationally unfeasible to iterate through all the possible solutions. As a plausible solution to this problem, an algorithm based on heuristic methods, which provides feasible solutions in a reasonable period has been designed. The selected optimization method is based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs), which belongs to the study field of evolutionary computation and is based on the idea that individuals with the best fitness inside a population can be combined to breed better individuals. The main objective of the presented algorithm relies on the minimization of costs associated to the electric cables and loss of revenue due to energy losses inside the inter-array cables. The algorithm is designed to generate electric layouts with both radial and star configurations and utilises two types of submarine cables to connect the turbines with different sections depending on the size and number of turbines connected. The reliability of the solution given by the software is compared with a commercial offshore wind farm layout. The electric layout given by the algorithm reduced the total costs.