Presentations

Abstract

A typical commercial scale floating offshore wind farm will need over 80 dynamic power cables connecting the floating substructures to a substation. There is an industry need for innovative, reliable and high value designs for the dynamic power cable system. Leveraging over 30 years' experience in the analysis of dynamic systems in the subsea industry Wood has performed a comparative assessment between conventional tethered lazy wave systems and a novel weighted lazy wave system. The assessment considered a 15MW IEA reference case floating wind turbine model, with dynamic power cable data and environmental data appropriate for a ScotWind or INTOG development. The assessment has been performed using Flexcom Wind. Flexcom Wind is Wood's dedicated simulator package for offshore wind turbines. Guided by an independent technical advisory group, real-world feedback from key players in the offshore wind industry has helped to shape this new software product. State-of-the-art aerodynamic modelling is delivered via a fully-integrated coupling with the industry-recognised OpenFAST software. Structural modelling accuracy is ensured by Flexcom's industry-proven finite element formulation. The software has been fully validated using benchmarking exercises with other industry leading software. The novel lazy wave system provides touchdown point control, restrains significant lateral motion to alleviate wear, and enable an earlier step down into a trench for cable protection This is a simpler design, removing the requirement for seabed structures to tether the cable to the seabed. A key benefit for floating offshore wind developments which require the rapid deployment of multiple units in proximity, this will reduce installation and manufacturing costs improving the overall levelised cost of electricity.