17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022].

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Received: 28 February 2022 Revised: 22 February 2022 Accepted: 27 June 2022 IET Renewable Power Generation
DOI: 10.1049/rpg2.12550

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

All-DC offshore wind farms: When are they more cost-effective

than AC designs?

Victor Timmers1 Agustí Egea-Àlvarez1 Aris Gkountaras2 Rui Li1 Lie Xu1

1
Department of Electronic and Electrical Abstract
Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
The use of MVDC collector systems has been proposed as a way to reduce the lev-
2
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Hamburg, elised cost of energy (LCOE) of offshore wind farms. This study provides a quantitative
Germany
assessment of the conditions required for such all-DC wind farms to be cost-effective.
A comprehensive LCOE analysis of two AC and two all-DC wind farm designs is per-
Correspondence
Victor Timmers, Department of Electronic and formed, with sensitivity studies on wind farm size, distance from shore, collector voltage,
Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, and component costs. The results show that for MVDC-based wind farms to be more
Glasgow, UK.
cost-effective than equivalent HVDC wind farms, the DC/DC converter cost must be less
Email: [email protected]
than 90% of the cost of an equivalent MMC, with a cost reduction of 25% for the DC plat-
Funding information form. Alternatively, if cost reductions of 30% can be achieved for the DC platform, then
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy; Engineering the DC/DC converter can be the same cost as an equivalent MMC. For all-MVDC wind
and Physical Sciences Research Council, farms without HVDC conversion stage to have the lowest LCOE, the collector voltage
Grant/Award Number: EP/T517665/1
must be increased, preferably to ±100 kV or above. The all-MVDC configuration can also
become cost-effective if a reduction of more than 50% in the cable installation cost can be
achieved, for example, through the simultaneous burial of multiple cables.

1 INTRODUCTION in their outcomes. This is due to differences in studied

configurations, methodology, and uncertainties associated with
The latest offshore wind farms under construction and in plan- immature technology such as high power, high step-up ratio
ning are the largest and furthest from shore ever. In the UK, DC/DC converters. In addition, the costs of offshore wind
preparation work has started for three 1200 MW Doggerbank farm components can be difficult to determine, due to the sen-
offshore wind farms, located between 130 km and 190 km from sitive nature of commercial data and the site-specific conditions
shore [1], as well as for the 1400 MW Sofia offshore wind, that are unique to each wind farm.
located 220 km from shore [2]. At the same time, strike prices In terms of studied configurations, a large range of designs
and subsidies for offshore wind have been decreasing at every has been proposed in the literature. These designs can be cate-
auction [3, 4], which means the offshore wind industry must gorised into parallel and series topologies. In the parallel designs,
continually innovate to become more cost-effective. the voltage is increased using DC/DC converters, located either
One of the proposed methods in the literature to reduce on an offshore platform [7], inside the wind turbines [8], or
the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for offshore wind is both [9, 10]. In series designs, the voltage is instead increased
by using MVDC cables in the wind farm collection network through the series connection of all wind turbines in the wind
instead of conventional MVAC cables. Such all-DC wind farms farm [11] or the series connection of wind turbines in each string
have potential advantages, including a higher collector power [12].
density, cable cost reductions, and reductions in the weight The methodologies used in cost-benefit analyses of all-DC
and size of the offshore converters and associated platforms wind farms in the literature is inconsistent, which further
[5]. complicates the selection of the optimal configuration [6].
Previous research [6] has shown that the economic evalua- For example, some studies only investigate a single aspect
tions of all-DC wind farms in the literature vary significantly of cost-effectiveness, such as capital cost [13], efficiency [14]

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
© 2022 The Authors. IET Renewable Power Generation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

IET Renew. Power Gener. 2022;1–13. wileyonlinelibrary.com/iet-rpg 1

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2 TIMMERS ET AL.

or reliability [15], which can have a large impact on the be most promising in terms of economic performance. Series
study outcome. designs, despite having potential cost advantages, were found to
In addition, most studies only investigate a single wind farm have challenges with reliability [11], insulation [18], voltage bal-
size and distance from shore, which makes their conclusions ancing [19], and maintaining the transmission voltage [19]. This
difficult to generalise. For example, a study by [7] investigated high technological risk means these series designs are unlikely
both costs and losses for several AC and DC configurations of candidates for commercialisation in the near future. These were
a 1000 MW wind farm located 100 km from shore. They found therefore excluded from the analysis.
that the DC parallel string collector was the most cost-effective.
This is in contrast to [16], who also investigated both costs and
losses of AC and DC configurations, but considered 100 MW 2.1 All-AC
and 300 MW wind farms. They found that the AC configura-
tion was more cost-effective in both cases. This suggests that The first tested configuration is the all-AC wind farm, illustrated
wind farm design parameters may impact the decision to use an in Figure 1a. This is the traditional configuration where the wind
AC or DC collector system. turbines are parallel connected in strings using 66 kV AC cables.
A limited number of studies have performed sensitivity anal- The strings connect to an offshore substation with two 50 Hz
yses to account for this uncertainty. In [17], a number of DC transformers to step up the voltage. This is then exported using
wind farm configurations were compared to an AC wind farm, 230 kV HVAC cables. Reactive compensation in the form of
with sensitivity studies on multiple component costs, distance shunt reactors are often connected to offset the cable capaci-
from shore and wind turbine rating. They found that these fac- tance. These can be located at the onshore substation, offshore
tors impacted whether the DC configurations performed better substation, or on a separate platform, depending on the total
than AC. However, this study did not draw any quantitative cable length.
conclusions about the requirements for component costs.

2.2 AC/HVDC
1.1 Contributions
The AC/HVDC wind farm configuration is illustrated in
This study aims to fill this gap by answering the question: what Figure 1b. This design has an identical collector system to that
conditions are required for DC wind farms to be preferred over of the all-AC configuration. The voltage is stepped up using
the traditional AC design? As part of this work, the following one or more 50 Hz transformers and is then converted to
contributions are made that have not yet been published in other HVDC by a modular multilevel converter (MMC). In the past,
literature: an offshore substation was typically used to house the step-up
This study is the first to quantitatively define the conditions transformers before connecting to the HVDC platform, such
that are required for DC wind farms to be cost-effective by per- as at the Dolwin cluster in Germany [20]. However, recent
forming sensitivity studies on wind farm size, distance from designs that use 66 kV cables remove the need for the offshore
shore, DC/DC converter cost, platform cost, cable cost and substation platform, instead housing all transformers on the
collector voltage. The results of this can be used as design tar- HVDC platform [21]. This paper considers this second design.
gets when developing novel components for DC wind farms, The power is exported from the HVDC platform to shore
such as the DC/DC converter. using HVDC cables rated at ±320 kV. Finally, a second MMC
The analysis includes the assessment of an all-MVDC wind is located at the onshore substation before connecting to the
farm topology, as well as a comparison to two traditional designs network.
(all-AC and AC/HVDC). There are currently no cost estimates
for this DC design and most studies only consider a comparison
to a single AC wind farm topology. 2.3 MVDC/HVDC
The cost-benefit analysis of the AC and DC wind farms is
the first which includes an assessment of multiple sources of The MVDC/HVDC configuration is shown in Figure 2a. This
data for wind farm cost components and their impact on the configuration uses an MVDC collector system, typically rated at
wind farm cost-effectiveness. Existing publications only con- ±40 kV. The wind turbines use an isolated DC/DC converter
sider a single source of data for their cost and rarely include with medium frequency transformer (MFT) after the rectifi-
any sensitivity analyses. cation stage to boost the voltage to this level. A large range
of DC/DC converters have been proposed in the literature
[22]. This study assumes the converter topology consists of a
2 CONFIGURATIONS cascaded single-active bridge (SAB) with phase shift [23]. The
offshore substation uses a high power version of this DC/DC
This study considers four configurations: two traditional designs converter. The DC/DC converter is smaller than the traditional
with AC collectors and two novel designs using DC collectors. MMC converter, resulting in a reduction in the HVDC plat-
The selection of all-DC configurations was based on [6], which form footprint. An MMC converts the voltage back to AC at
identified the standard parallel and dispersed parallel designs to the onshore substation.
 17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
TIMMERS ET AL. 3

FIGURE 1 Single line diagrams of the investigated AC wind farm configurations: (a) all-AC, (b) AC/HVDC

FIGURE 2 Single line diagrams of the investigated DC wind farm configurations: (a) MVDC/HVDC, (b) all-MVDC

2.4 All-MVDC does not have a central high power DC/DC converter on the
offshore platform to step up the voltage. Instead, the offshore
The final configuration is the all-MVDC wind farm, as shown platform is much smaller and only consists of DC connec-
in Figure 2b. This design uses the same ±40 kV MVDC collec- tion protection equipment. The export cables to shore have
tor system as the previous design. This configuration however, the same voltage as the collector system. Here too, an MMC
 17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
4 TIMMERS ET AL.

TABLE 1 Wind farm design results for the base case

Parameter all-AC AC/HVDC MVDC/HVDC all-MVDC

Wind turbine rating (MW) 15 15 15 15

Number of strings 14 14 12 12
Wind turbines per string 5 5 6 6
String cable CSAs (mm2 ) 95, 95, 185, 95, 95, 185, 95, 120, 240, 95, 120, 240,
300, 630 300, 630 400, 630, 800 400, 630, 800
Number of transformers 4 4 0 0
Transformer MVA 265 265 – –
Number of export cables 3 1 1 6
Export cable CSA (mm2 ) 1200 1400 1400 2400
Reactive compensation (MVAr) 950 0 0 0

is located at the onshore substation before connecting to the 3 COST CALCULATION

grid.
The aim of the cost calculation is to provide an estimate of
the capital expenditure (CAPEX) for the investigated config-
2.5 Design urations. Offshore wind farms consist of a huge number of
components. In the CAPEX estimation, only the most sig-
The study considers wind farms ranging in size from 200 MW nificant cost contributors are included. These consist of the
to 1500 MW, with a base case of 1000 MW. As a result, a generic wind turbines including drivetrain and foundation, the collec-
design procedure was used to determine the wind farm param- tor cables, the offshore substation including transformers and
eters. The results for the base case design of each of the four switchgear, the high power converters, the export cables and the
configurations are shown in Table 1. onshore substation. For the all-AC wind farm, reactive compen-
The collector system is considered to be a standard rectan- sation is required and the costs associated with shunt reactors
gular arrangement of the wind turbines, with an inter-turbine and any additional platforms are also included.
spacing of 7 rotor diameters [7] or 1.5 km. The number of wind Since cost information is provided in different currencies and
turbines per string is limited by the maximum collector cable available for various years, it is necessary to normalise all cost
cross-sectional area (CSA), which is 800 mm2 [24]. The wind data. A base currency of M€2021 was selected for this. The cur-
turbines were distributed evenly to all strings. The CSA of all rency conversions are performed using the average exchange
collector cables are then calculated based on the maximum cur- rate of the source year, obtained from [32]. Costs are then
rent each is expected to conduct, resulting in smaller CSA for adjusted to the 2021 value of the euro based on the historical
the first turbines in a string. The available AC and DC cable sizes inflation rate, obtained from [33].
and ratings were obtained from publicly available datasheets [25,
26].
For the AC designs, the number of MV busbars is calcu- 3.1 Wind turbine
lated assuming a maximum continuous current rating of 2.5
kA per busbar [27, 28]. Each busbar has a step-up transformer The cost of AC wind turbines has been estimated by a number
connected with a rating taking into account a minimum power of sources [24, 34, 35] and is calculated based on the wind tur-
factor of 0.95, based on the grid code [29]. The MV busbars bine rated power. The cost, including acquisition, foundation,
are connected together using normally open bus ties, which transport and installation, is shown in Figure 3a. The median
can reconfigure the power flow in case of transformer failure cost estimate by [34] is given in (A.1) in the appendix.
[28]. The maximum number of transformers per substation is There is currently no cost data available for wind turbines
assumed to be four due to the constructional constraints [27]. If that use DC electrical drivetrains as no commercial designs have
more transformers are required, additional AC substations will been implemented. Most cost estimates in the literature there-
be needed to accommodate these. fore consider the cost of DC wind turbines to be a factor of
The maximum HVAC and HVDC cable CSAs were set to the AC wind turbine cost [17]. The BVG Associates report
be 2000 mm2 and 3000 mm2 , respectively. Cable sizes, ratings, [24] estimates the power take-off and control system to cost
and AC capacitance were obtained or extrapolated from [25, 26]. approximately 6.6% of the overall turbine cost, including the
For the all-AC configuration, the capacitance is considered to be foundation and installation. For this cost-benefit analysis, the
fully compensated using reactive compensation equipment. The DC/DC converter with MFT is assumed to have a cost that is
distribution of reactive compensation is based on [30, 31]. 50% higher than the conventional back-to-back converter due
 17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
TIMMERS ET AL. 5

FIGURE 3 Wind farm component costs, calculated using various sources including Dicorato et al. [35], Gonzalez-Rodriguez et al. (GR) [34], BVG associates
(BVG) [24], Lundberg (LB) [12], NorthSeaGrid (NSG) [36], UK Electricity Ten Year Statement (ETYS) [37], European Network of Transmission System Operators
for Electricity (ENTSO-E) [38], Parker and Anaya-Lara (PA) [7], Stamatiou (ST) [39] : (a) wind turbine, (b) MVAC and MVDC cables (c) HVAC cables, (d) HVDC
cables, (e) AC platform, (f) DC platform, (g) AC/DC converter, (h) DC/DC converter, (i) shunt reactor

to the additional conversion stage. The total DC wind turbine Cost estimates for DC collector cables are more difficult
cost is therefore 3.3% higher compared to AC. to obtain as medium voltage DC submarine cables are not
yet widely used. One cost estimate is provided [12]. This has
also been used in many other publications [7, 17, 39]. The
3.2 Collector cables equation (A.3) for this is given in the appendix.

Most current offshore wind farm projects use radial AC col-

lection systems with voltages of 33 kV. More recent offshore 3.3 Export cables
wind farms are planned to have voltages of 66 kV. There is also
ongoing research and industrial interest in increasing this volt- Cost estimates for HVAC cables found in the literature [12,
age to 132 kV for future wind farms. Cost estimates for medium 36, 37] are shown in Figure 3c. The same sources also provide
voltage cables are provided in [12, 34, 35] and are shown in estimates for HVDC cables, shown in Figure 3d. The median
Figure 3b. The median estimate for AC cables is [12] for most cost for most cable sizes is given by [37]. The equation (A.4) is
cable sizes. This is calculated using (A.2). provided in the appendix.
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6 TIMMERS ET AL.

3.4 Platforms TABLE 2 Component annual operational expenditures, with CAPEX as

base [36]

The AC platform cost is provided by various sources [12, 36, Component OPEX (pu)
37], and is shown in Figure 3e. The median estimate provided Cables 0.025
by [36] is calculated using Equation (A.5). The all-MVDC con-
Platform 0.02
figuration uses a small protection platform which is assumed
to be half the cost of the AC platform. Similarly, the DC Onshore converter 0.007
platform cost is estimated by [36–38], as shown in Figure 3f. Offshore converter 0.02
The median cost provided by [36] is calculated using Equa- Switchgear 0.007
tion (A.6). The MVDC/HVDC configuration uses a smaller Transformer 0.0015
and lighter DC/DC converter compared to the conventional Shunt reactor 0.0015
HVDC converters used in the AC/HVDC design. The cost of
this platform was assumed to be 75% of the DC platform cost
in the base case.

3.5 Converters

The cost of the high power AC/DC converter used in the

AC/HVDC configuration is provided by [12, 36, 37], and
shown in Figure 3g. The cost for a DC/DC converter is
more difficult to obtain since no commercial designs have been
applied to wind farms so far. Estimates have been made by [7,
12, 39], which can be observed in Figure 3h. The median for
both converter types is provided by [12] and calculated using
Equation (A.7). FIGURE 4 Wind turbine power calculation inputs: (a) Weibull probability
distribution of the wind speed, (b) wind turbine power curve

3.6 Equipment
where OPEXNPV is the net present value of the operational
Other equipment which contributes to the cost to a lesser
costs in M€ 2021 , On is the annual OPEX of component n, d
extent include the transformers, switchgear and shunt reactors.
is the discount rate, and LT is the lifetime in years. The base
The transformer costs can be approximated using Equation
case considers a discount rate of 6% and a lifetime of 27 years
(A.8), provided by Dicorato [35]. The cost of the offshore GIS
[24].
switchgear is provided in the 2015 ETYS [37] using Equa-
tion (A.9). The cost of DC switchgear used in the DC wind
farm configurations was assumed to be twice the cost of AC
4 LOSSES, RELIABILITY AND LCOE
switchgear, based on [39]. The shunt reactor costs are given
CALCULATION
by [36, 40] and are shown in Figure 3i. These can be approxi-
mated using Equation (A.10). If the shunt reactor is located on
4.1 Losses
the offshore platform, the cost of the additional weight is pro-
vided by [41] and calculated using (A.11). If the shunt reactor
The energy losses of each component are dependent on the
requires a separate offshore platform at the cable midpoint, this
power output of the wind turbines. A Weibull probability distri-
is calculated using (A.5).
bution of the wind speed was assumed, resulting in the following
expression
3.7 Operational costs [ ( )k ]
k ( v )k−1 v
T (v) = 8760 ⋅ ⋅ exp − , (2)
The annual operational expenditure (OPEX) of each compo- c c c
nent was estimated as a proportion of the CAPEX, based on
median values suggested in [36]. These are given in Table 2. The where T (v) is the annual hours with wind speed v, c is the scale
net present value (NPV) of the OPEX is calculated by discount- parameter, and k is the shape parameter. A typical value of 2.3
ing the annual OPEX over the lifetime of the wind farm, using for k and 11 for c was selected, resulting in the distribution
the equation illustrated in Figure 4a. The power output of the wind turbines
at each wind speed is calculated using a generic power curve,
∑N ( ) scaled to the wind turbine rating. This is shown in Figure 4b. A
n=1 On 1
OPEXNPV = ⋅ 1− , (1) typical reduction of 8.5% in the wind speed is included to take
d (1 + d )LT into account the effect of wakes in the wind farm.
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TIMMERS ET AL. 7

TABLE 3 Component no-load and full-load losses TABLE 4 Component failure rates and repair times

Component Source NLL (%) FLL (%) Component Source 𝝀 (yr−1 ) r (hrs)

WT converter [42] 0.2 2.0 AC cable [46] 0.0007/km 1440

MMC converter [43] 0.1 0.8 DC cable [46] 0.0004/km 2304
Transformer [44] 0.055 0.3 AC circuit breaker [47] 0.024 720
Transformer [48] 0.025 3000
WT converter [49] 0.15 720
MMC converter [50] 0.0153 1664
The losses for each cable run were calculated using the
equation

∑
vmax
( )2
Lcab = T (v) ⋅ 3 Icab (v) Rcab , (3) Failure rate and repair time data varies significantly between
v=vmin
sources. In [48], the failure rate of offshore converters is found
to be 1 failure per year with a repair time of up to 168 h, whereas
where T (v) is the annual hours with wind speed v, Icab (v) is the the failure rate and repair time used in [50] differ by an order of
current passing through the cable at wind speed v, and Rcab is magnitude: 0.0153 failures/year and 1664 h, respectively. This
the cable resistance. For DC cables, the factor 3 is replaced by a difference is due to the types of failures considered, as well as
factor 2 due to the reduction in conductors per cable. the consideration of travel time.
The losses of the wind turbine converter, transformer, For offshore wind farms, the transportation of technicians
AC/DC converter and shunt reactor were calculated using the and equipment has a major impact on overall repair time, espe-
equation cially since this is impacted by adverse weather conditions [51].
( ( )2 ) The downtime of the wind turbine converter and circuit break-
∑
vmax
Pn (v) ers were therefore assumed to be 30 days, despite their much
Ln = T (v) ⋅ NLL + ⋅ FLL , (4)
v=vmin
Pmax lower onshore repair times.
The reliability of the DC technology such as the DC/DC
where Ln are the losses in per unit of component n, Pn (v) converter and DC circuit breakers is not known and will be
is the power at wind speed v, Pmax is the component rated dependent on the topology used. For this study, the unavailabil-
power, NLL and FLL are the component no-load and full-load ity of the DC/DC converter was assumed to be twice that of
losses in per unit, respectively. These are provided in Table 3. the AC/DC converter plus the unavailability of the transformer.
The shunt reactors are assumed to have identical losses to The failure rate of DC circuit breakers was assumed to be twice
the transformers. that of AC circuit breakers [39].
The losses of DC/DC converters with various topologies For the calculation of Fn (v), it was assumed that any fail-
were estimated in [23]. The base case assumes a single-active ure of the collector cables or string circuit breaker would result
bridge topology with phase shift operation, which has losses in the disconnection of the entire string. For transformer fail-
ranging from 2.75% at low loading to 1.4% losses at full load ures, the wind farm was assumed to be reconfigured to divert
[23]. the energy to the remaining transformers, curtailing the wind
turbine output to prevent exceeding the transformer ratings if
necessary. Similarly, if one of the export cables fails, the energy
4.2 Reliability is assumed to be diverted to any remaining healthy cables up to
their maximum rated capability.
The reliability of each configuration was taken into account by
calculating the expected energy not supplied (EENS) due to
repairs of each component, based on the approach in [45]. The 4.3 Levelised cost of energy
unavailability due to the failure of a component n is expressed
using The levelised cost of energy was used to compare the economic
performance of the four configurations. This is calculated using
∑
vmax the equation
Un = T (v) ⋅ Fn (v) ⋅ 𝜆n ⋅ rn (5)
v=vmin Ctotal + OPEXNPV
LCOE = , (6)
(1 − Ltotal − Utotal ) ⋅ AEPNPV
where T (v) is the annual hours with wind speed v, 𝜆n is the fail-
ure rate of component n, rn is the repair time, and Fn (v) is the where Ctotal is the total CAPEX, OPEXNPV is the net present
proportion of the wind farm out of service due to the failure of value of the OPEX, Ltotal are the total losses in per unit,
the component. The failure rates and repair times used in the Utotal is the total unavailability in per unit, and AEPNPV is the
calculation are set out in Table 4. discounted gross annual energy production.
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8 TIMMERS ET AL.

FIGURE 5 Costs, losses, and unavailability of each component for the considered configurations in the base case

5 RESULTS

5.1 Base case

The base case considers a 1000 MW wind farm at a distance

of 100 km from shore. The cost, losses, and reliability break-
down for each of the four configurations is shown in Figure 5.
The cost results show that the MVDC/HVDC configuration
has the lowest overall cost, mainly due to the lower DC platform
and cable costs. The all-AC and AC/HVDC configurations have
similar capital costs. The latter has a reduction in cable costs
but these are largely offset by the converter and DC platform
costs. The all-MVDC configuration does not provide significant
cost savings in this case despite having the lowest platform cost
of all configurations. This is because it requires a large num-
ber of export cable circuits due to the low export voltage. This FIGURE 6 Levelised cost of energy by distance from shore for a
significantly increases the cable costs. 1000 MW wind farm using the considered configurations
In terms of efficiency, the AC/HVDC and MVDC/HVDC
configurations provide improvements over the all-AC con-
figuration due to the reduction in export cable losses. The
MVDC/HVDC configuration, however, suffers from high cost-effective beyond 80 km. The all-MVDC option is more
converter losses in the base case, resulting in more limited expensive for all distances.
efficiency improvements. The all-MVDC configuration has It can be seen from the figure that as the distance to shore
increased overall losses due to the lower export voltage, despite increases, the LCOE of the configurations increases linearly due
having no converter or transformer losses on its offshore to a rise in export cable costs and losses. The all-AC option has
substation. additional step increases at 90 km and 190 km because at these
The unavailability figure shows that the all-AC configuration distances additional platforms are required to house the reactive
has the highest reliability due to the mature technology used compensation equipment along the cable circuit.
and absence of converters. Conversely, the MVDC/HVDC and The optimal configuration was calculated for each combi-
all-MVDC configurations have the lowest reliability due to the nation of wind farm size ranging from 200 MW to 1500 MW
relatively high assumed failure rate of the DC/DC converter and distance from shore between 20 km and 200 km. The base
and DC switchgear. case considers a collector voltage of 66 kV AC or ±40 kV DC.
The result of this calculation is shown in Figure 7. The results
show that the traditional all-AC configuration is the most cost-
5.2 Optimal configuration effective for wind farms of any size up to approximately 80 km
from shore, or small wind farms of up to 500 MW at any dis-
The calculated LCOE for the base case shows that the tance from shore. The MVDC/HVDC option has the lowest
MVDC/HVDC configuration is the preferred option with an LCOE in two regions: large wind farms of more than 800 MW
LCOE of 47 € 2021 /MWh. The calculated LCOE for other at medium distances of 80 km to 140 km, and medium wind
distances are shown in Figure 6. The figure shows that for a farm sizes of 400 MW to 600 MW at long distances of more than
1000 MW wind farm, the all-AC configuration has the low- 120 km. For large wind farms at far distances, the AC/HVDC
est LCOE up to 80 km. The AC/HVDC and MVDC/HVDC option becomes more cost-effective. The all-MVDC option
configurations have near identical LCOEs and are most does not have the lowest LCOE at any point in the base case.
 17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
TIMMERS ET AL. 9

The precise cost savings will be dependent on the weight and

space requirements of the DC/DC converter and the DC plat-
form design. A sensitivity study was performed to determine
the cost reduction requirements. The results of this analysis are
shown in Figure 8b.
The figure shows that the MVDC platform must provide a
minimum of 20% cost savings for the MVDC/HVDC option
to be the optimal configuration under limited conditions. A sig-
nificant improvement can be seen when the MVDC platform
is 27.5% cheaper than an equivalent HVDC platform. For the
MVDC/HVDC configuration to be more cost-effective than
the AC/HVDC configuration for all wind farm sizes and dis-
tances from shore, a cost reduction in the DC platform of 30%
is required.
FIGURE 7 Optimal configuration in the base case for varying wind farm
size and distance from shore

6.3 Collector voltage

6 SENSITIVITY STUDIES
The all-MVDC configuration is highly dependent on the
A series of sensitivity studies were performed to take into selected collector voltage. Increasing the voltage will reduce
account the uncertainties of the most important elements for the number of cable circuits required in the all-MVDC export
both all-DC configurations including the cost and performance system, which is the main source of capital costs for this config-
of the DC/DC converter, the DC platform costs, the collector uration. A sensitivity study was performed varying the collector
voltage and the export cable installation costs. voltage up to ±140 kV DC. Note that higher collector voltages
result in additional challenges in terms of insulation require-
ments and wind turbine converter capability, which have not
6.1 DC/DC converter been taken into account here. The results for this study are
shown in Figure 9a.
A sensitivity study was performed to take into account the The figure shows that a minimum voltage of ±60 kV is
uncertainty of the DC/DC converter technology. The cost, required for the all-MVDC option to have the lowest LCOE
losses and failure rate of the DC/DC converter were varied as a for 200 MW wind farms at distances of more than 110 km
proportion of the base case values. The results of this sensitivity from shore. Further increases in the voltage show the all-
analysis are shown in Figure 8a. MVDC option becomes increasingly cost-effective for larger
The figure shows the DC/DC converter cost and perfor- wind farms at medium distances. At a collector voltage of
mance have a large impact on the cost-effectiveness of the ±100 kV, the all-MVDC option is the most cost-effective for
MVDC/HVDC configuration. The maximum DC/DC con- wind farms up to 900 MW at distances between 90 km and
verter allowable cost, losses, and failure rate are 1.05 pu of 120 km. If the collector voltage can be increased to ±140 kV,
the base case values. At this point, the MVDC/HVDC con- the all-MVDC option has the lowest LCOE for the majority of
figuration has the lowest LCOE under very limited conditions: wind farm sizes and distances.
400 MW wind farms located between 120 km and 190 km
from shore.
As the cost and performance improve, the MVDC/HVDC
option becomes the optimal configuration for more wind farms. 6.4 Cable installation cost
The largest improvement can be seen at 0.9 pu, at which
point the MVDC/HVDC configuration is preferred over the The all-MVDC configuration requires a large number of export
AC/HVDC option for all wind farm sizes and distances from cables, therefore any reduction in the cable installation cost will
shore. Further cost reductions and performance improvements disproportionately benefit this configuration. A sensitivity study
have a smaller impact, marginally reducing the distance from was performed on the cable installation cost, with the results
shore at which the MVDC/HVDC configuration becomes the shown in Figure 9b.
most cost-effective option. The figure shows that if the cable installation cost can be
reduced by 50% or more, the all-MVDC option becomes cost-
effective for small wind farms at large distances from shore,
6.2 DC platform cost even when using ±40 kV cable circuits. Most of the installation
cost is due to the hiring of vessels [24]. Therefore to achieve
The main advantage of the MVDC/HVDC configuration over such a significant cost reduction, specialised equipment that can
the AC/HVDC configuration is its DC platform cost reduction. install several cables at once would likely be required.
 17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
10 TIMMERS ET AL.

FIGURE 8 Wind farm size and distance from shore where the MVDC/HVDC configuration has the lowest LCOE, based on (a) converter cost, losses and
failure rate compared to the base case, and (b) relative cost of MVDC platform compared to the HVDC platform

FIGURE 9 Wind farm size and distance from shore where the all-MVDC configuration has the lowest LCOE, based on (a) collector voltage, (b) export cable
installation cost compared to the base case

7 CONCLUSION to be more cost-effective than equivalent AC/HVDC wind

farms at any size and distance, the DC/DC converter cost
This paper investigated the conditions required for all-DC wind must be less than 90% of the cost of an equivalent MMC,
farms to be more cost-effective than existing AC configurations. with a cost reduction of 25% for the DC platform. Alterna-
A total of four wind farm configurations were assessed, includ- tively, if the DC platform of the MVDC/HVDC configuration
ing the all-AC, AC/HVDC, MVDC/HVDC, and all-MVDC costs 30% less than that of the AC/HVDC option, then the
designs. The analysis took into account the costs, losses, and DC/DC converter can be the same cost as an equivalent
reliability to calculate the wind farm LCOE. The optimal con- MMC.
figuration with the lowest LCOE was calculated for wind farms The main factors affecting the all-MVDC option are the col-
ranging in size from 200 MW to 1500 MW at a distance from lector voltage and cable installation costs. A collector voltage of
shore between 20 km and 200 km. ±100 kV or more results in the all-MVDC option being pre-
The results showed that for the base case, the all-AC option ferred for small and medium wind farms at distances above
is preferred for wind farms of any size at distances up to 80 km from shore. If collector voltages of ±140 kV can be
80 km from shore. The AC/HVDC option is optimal for achieved, the all-MVDC option becomes the optimal config-
large wind farms at very long distances of more than 150 km uration for most wind farm sizes and distances from shore.
from shore. The MVDC/HVDC option has a very similar Alternatively, a reduction in cable installation costs of 50% or
LCOE to the AC/HVDC option and is most cost-effective at more is required for the all-MVDC option to be the most cost-
the transition between all-AC and AC/HVDC. The all-MVDC effective configuration for small wind farms at long distances
option was found to always be more expensive than the other from shore.
configurations in the base case. Potential future work can include refining the cost-benefit
The sensitivity studies showed that the main factors affect- analysis once DC/DC converter development is nearer com-
ing the MVDC/HVDC cost-effectiveness were the costs of the mercialisation and performing case-studies for specific wind
DC/DC converter and DC platform. For the MVDC/HVDC farm locations.
 17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
TIMMERS ET AL. 11

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 19. Zhang, H., Gruson, F., Rodriguez, D.M.F., Saudemont, C.: Overvolt-
This work was funded by EPSRC Industrial CASE number age limitation method of an offshore wind farm with dc series-parallel
collection grid. IEEE Trans. Sustain. Energy 10(1), 204–213 (2018)
EP/T517665/1 and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.
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12 TIMMERS ET AL.

workshop on large scale integration of wind power and transmission TABLE A.1 Cost parameters used in (A.2) for AC cables [12]
networks for offshore windfarms, Glasgow, 7–8 April 2005
Voltage (kV) Ap Bp Cp
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Josse, L.: Optimization and reliability evaluation of an offshore 33 0.411 0.596 4.1
wind farm architecture. IEEE Trans. Sustain. Energy 8(2), 542–550
66 0.688 0.625 2.05
(2016)
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Underground and Submarine Cable Systems. CIGRE, Paris (2009) 220 3.181 0.11 1.16
47. Frankén, B.: Reliability study: Analysis of electrical systems within offshore
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Network Options. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (2015)
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bines: Field-data based identification of weak points and cost drivers. In: TABLE A.2 Cost parameters used in (A.3) for DC cables [12]
Scientific Proceedings of EWEA. EWEA, Brussels (2015)
50. Working Group B4. 60.: TB713: Designing HVDC Grids for Voltage (kV) Ap Bp
Optimal Reliability and Availability Performance. CIGRE, Paris
40 −0.314 0.0618
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51. Negra, N.B., Holmstrom, O., Bak Jensen, B., Sorensen, P.: Aspects of rel- 160 −0.100 0.0164
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Convers. 22(1), 159–166 (2007)
300 0.286 0.0097

How to cite this article: Timmers, V., Egea-Àlvarez,

A., Gkountaras, A., Li, R., Xu, L.: All-DC offshore wind TABLE A.3 Cost parameters used in (A.4) for HV cables [37]
farms: When are they more cost-effective than AC Parameter HVAC HVDC
designs? IET Renew. Power Gener. 1–13 (2022).
A 5.05 ⋅10−6 1.31 ⋅10−7
https://doi.org/10.1049/rpg2.12550
B −1.32 ⋅10−3 1.47 ⋅10−4
C 0.43 0.29
D 0.79 0.85
APPENDICES A
A.1 Cost equations
The median cost of the AC wind turbine is calculated using

⎛ ⎞ The median cost of the DC collector cables is calculated using

⎜ PT0.87 ⎟
CACWT = 1.051 ⋅⎜1.374 ⋅ + 0.363 ⋅ PWT1.06 ⎟
, (A.1)
⏟⏟⏟ ⎜ NWT ⏟⎴⎴⏟⎴⎴⏟⎟
inflation ⎜⏟ ⎴⎴ ⏟ ⎴⎴ ⏟ foundation ⎟
⎝ wind turbine ⎠ ⎛ ⎞
⎜ ⎟
CDCcab = 0.1437 ⎜A p + B p ⋅ Pcab + 2.4 ⎟, (A.3)
⏟⏟⏟ ⏟ ⎴⎴ ⏟ ⎴⎴ ⏟ ⏟⏟⏟
conversion ⎜ instal. ⎟
where CACWT is the cost of the AC wind turbines in M€2021 ,
PT is the total active power of the wind farm, PWT is the rated ⎝ cable ⎠
power of an individual wind turbine and NWT is the number of
where CDCcab is the cost of the DC cables in M€2021 /km, Pcab
wind turbines. An inflation factor of 1.051 is used to convert the
is the rated power of the cable in MW, and A p and B p are
costs to M€2021 .
parameters dependent on the voltage, given in Table A.2. For
The median cost of the AC collector cables is calculated using
other voltages, the values of A p and B p are estimated using
linear interpolation.
⎛ ⎞ The median cost of HV cables can be approximated using the
⎜ ( ) ⎟ second-order equation
C p Sn
CACcab = 0.1437 ⋅⎜A p + B p ⋅ exp + 2.4 ⎟, (A.2)
⏟⏟⏟ ⎜ 100 ⏟⏟⏟⎟
conversion ⎜⏟⎴⎴⎴⎴⎴⎴⏟⎴⎴⎴⎴⎴⎴⏟ inst. ⎟ ⎛ ⎞
⎝ ⎠ ⎜ ⎟
cable
CHVcab = 1.452 ⋅⎜A ⋅ Pcab
2
+ B ⋅ Pcab + C + D ⎟, (A.4)
⏟⏟⏟ ⏟ ⎴⎴⎴⎴⎴ ⏟ ⎴⎴⎴⎴⎴ ⏟ ⏟⏟⏟
where CACcab is the cable cost in M€2021 /km, A p , B p and C p are conversion ⎜
⎝ instal. ⎟
⎠
cable
constants dependent on the cable voltage, given in Table A.1,
and Sn is the rated power of the cable in MVA. The original where CHVcab is the cost of the transmission cable in M€
equation calculates the costs in SEK2003 , therefore a conversion 2021 /kmand Pcab is the rated power of the cable in MW. The
factor of 0.1437 was used. parameters are given in Table A.3.
 17521424, 0, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/rpg2.12550 by INASP/HINARI - INDONESIA, Wiley Online Library on [31/10/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
TIMMERS ET AL. 13

The median cost of the AC substation platform is calculated The transformer cost is approximated using
using ( )
CTR = 1.1495 ⋅ 0.0427 ⋅ (PTR )0.7513 , (A.8)
⏟⏟⏟
CACpl = 1.0519 ⋅(0.0738 ⋅ PWF + 53.25 ), (A.5)
⏟⏟⏟ inflation
inflation
where CTR is the cost of the transformer in M€ 2021 and PTR is
where CACpl is the cost of the AC platform in M€ 2021 and PWF the rated power of the transformer in MVA.
is the rated power of the wind farm in MW. The switchgear cost can be approximated by the linear
The median cost of the DC platform is calculated using equation

CDCpl = 1.0519 ⋅(0.125 ⋅ PWF + 165 ), (A.6) CSG = 1.452 ⋅(0.0105 ⋅ VSG − 0.2007 ), (A.9)
⏟⏟⏟ ⏟⏟⏟
inflation conversion

where CDCpl is the cost of the DC platform in M€ 2021 and PWF where CSG is the cost of the switchgear in M€ 2021 and VSG is
is the rated power of the wind farm in MW. the rated voltage of the switchgear in kV.
The median cost of the high power converter is calculated The cost of the shunt reactor is given by
based on [12], using the equation
CSR = 1.452 ⋅(0.0177 ⋅ QSR + 0.96 ). (A.10)
⏟⏟⏟
Cconv = 0.1437 ⋅PWF , (A.7)
⏟⏟⏟ conversion
conversion
The additional platform cost due to shunt reactor weight is
where Cconv is the cost of either the AC/DC or DC/DC con- calculated using
verter in M€ 2021 and PWF is the rated power of the wind farm ( )
in MW. The original equation calculates the costs in SEK2003, CSRweight = 1.0844 ⋅ 6.08 ⋅ 10−4 ⋅ QSR
0.765
. (A.11)
⏟⏟⏟
therefore a conversion factor of 0.1437 was used. inflation