OPTIMISING THE DESIGN OF OFFSHORE WIND FARM

COLLECTION NETWORKS

P.D. Hopewell('), F. Castro-Sayas(l), D.I. Bailey(')

(1) Sinclair Knight Merz, UK

Keywords: offshore, electrical, economic, cable, transformer

ABSTRACT
Wind turbines have reached a stage of maturity such that their use in offshore applications is becoming
common. A principal objective of the offshore wind farm developer is to implement the wind farm to
give the lowest cost of energy over the lifetime of the project, thus ensuring the greatest return on
investment. Economic performance of the turbines is paramount, but the performance of the electrical
infrastructure can comprise a significant portion of total project costs, typically 10-20%.
This paper reviews the principles of offshore wind farm collection system economics and outlines
methods to optimise the turbine layout, location of offshore substations and the sizing and design of the
wind farm collection network. It considers the economic impact of cable size selection and the
potential benefits for using multiple offshore substations, with a view to minimising lifetime ownership
costs of the scheme without compromising or operational technical requirements.

INTRODUCTION costs associated with the electrical collection

infrastructure are normally small.
Designing the electrical collection and OFFSHORE WIND FARM LAYOUT
transmission system for an offshore wind farm
poses unique problems to the electrical The area available for an offshore wind farm is
engineer. Conventional utility design practice determined by the regulatory authorities of the
focuses on the need to deliver reliable supplies project country and in the UK this is the
and duplication of circuits is frequently Crown Estate. Most offshore wind farms to
required, leading to low levels of equipment date have had simple geometric boundaries
utilisation. and have adopted a straightforward rectangular
or rhomboid grid. Figure 1 shows a layout
In common with virtually all renewable power suitable to accommodate 108 turbines.
sources, offshore wind incurs the majority of
its costs at the project inception, without
on-going fuel costs over the life of the scheme.
Additionally, discount rates applied to the
economic study of offshore wind projects are
commonly higher than those applied to
conventional generation schemes. Therefore
the lifetime financial health of a roect is most
strongly influenced by the development costs.
These include all preliminary studies and
licensing, wind turbine supply and erection,
offshore and onshore civil engineering and the
electrical collection and grid conection
infrastructure.
There is, herefore strong iperative o Figure - Laou of Offshore Wind Farm

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 voltage. A 33kV radial collection system is of the transformer platform. The principal
commonly used, although some designs have objective of the optimisation process is to
limited interconnection to form rings allowing minimise the total 33kV cable used to connect
partial redundancy. Above 36kV it becomes the turbines to the transformer platform(s).
uneconomic to accommodate switchgear and The optimum location for the transformer
transformers in each turbine tower, so 33-36kV platforms is based upon minimising the sum of
is widely used for collection schemes. Figure the distances between the transformer
2 illustrates a typical radial collection scheme, platforms and any associated wind turbines.
this time for a 30 turbine project. To simplify analysis, transformer platforms are
assumed to be located immediately adjacent to
Fe CFeed.r2 a wind turbine. In practice the expectation
&e09 e would be that a platform would be located
ESP midway between wind turbines in order to
|F.dr3 minimise interference with air flow.
An example is given below to illustrate the
principle of optimum transformer platform
tE5rnn-caB1esz location. For practical reasons, cable layouts
Figure 2 - Radial 33kV Collection System within offshore wind farms by and large follow
the regular geometric pattern of the farm
For onward transmission to the shore, the layout and this is assumed in this analysis. In
voltage is again stepped up to a higher level, the case of two transformer platforms, the
typically 132kV for UK applications. Higher distance from each wind turbine to its nearest
voltages than this (such as 275kV or 400kV) transformer platform has been used in the
have not been used to date and are unlikely to evaluation. The evaluation process is
be used within the timescale of UK Round 2 computationally intensive and calculates the
offshore developments[1]. This is principally distances from all wind turbines to all unique
because: combination pairs of transformer locations to
select the optimum.
a) three-core cable designs are not
available at the highest system The calculation of distances in the algorithm
voltages, necessitating the use of three assumes that each wind turbine will be
single core cables, potentially tripling connected to the transformer platform by
subsea cable laying costs dedicated feeders. However, in practice a
b) management of cable charging number of wind turbines will share a cable
currents becomes more difficult at circuit and hence the overall distance of cable
higher voltages, limiting current that will be associated with such connections
capacity available for exporting will be significantly reduced, on a simplistic
power and possibly requiring basis by the number of wind turbines
intermediate compensation platforms associated with each circuit. The distances
c) developers are typically looking for found in the calculation have to be corrected to
proven, low risk solutions. XLPE take into account the number of wind turbines
cables are well established and connected to each feeder cable from each
reliable at 132kV, but there is transformer platform for the one and two
considerably less experience of their transformer platform scenarios.
use at voltages approaching 400kV.
The following drawing indicates the effect on
The 132/33kV transformers are accommodated the ratio between connection and circuit
on a structure similar to an offshore oil distances of a circuit being sharing by a
platform and the number and location of these number of wind turbines. It illustrates the
can be optimised. process followed to correct the distances
obtained from the basic calculation to give a
OPTIMUM LOCATION OF more practical evaluation of distance when
TRANSFORMER PLATFORM multiple turbines share a feeder.
Location of the transformer platform strongly
influences the layout and extent (and hence
capital cost and losses) of the 33kV collection
system. SKM have developed a streamlined
technique to assess and optimise the location

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 lifecycle cost in order to achieve its maximum
\/ A B B B B B economic potential. Each design choice has an
effect on the project financial performance,
affecting capital costs, taxes, insurance, energy
revenue, maintenance costs, and government
subsidies.
Figure 3 - Radial 33kV String Walling and Ruddy [2] introduce a method to
simplify the evaluation an
to determine of optimal
different solution
design
Based on te abov to t c t proposals
distance would be as follows:
based on the specific economic circumstances
-for the first turbine A of a particular wind farm. The method
-for the 2nd turbine A ±B considers the differentiating factors that can
-forthe3rdturbine
-for the turbine A±+2B..
A±3B lead to the selection of one electrical design
-
-for the 4th turbine A+3B over another. To do this is breaks the
-for the 5th turbine A + 4B, and operating costs of each option into three
-for the 6th turbine A + 5B components:
1) Fixed losses, which do not vary with
This gives an overall connection distance ofwidfrouptThsaepimil
6A + 15B. In contrast the actual cable route trnsform ectati losses.
distance would be A + 5B. Assuming A and B
to be equal, the ratio between the summed 2) Variable load losses, which vary
connection distances and actual length of according to the square of output. These
are ohmic losses in cables and
circuit will be 21/6 = 3.5. However, if A were aresohmers.
transformers.
to be three times B, corresponding to a large Energy not generated due to a constraint
area wind farm
area
with the need for an extended
windfarmwiththeneedforanextende 3) imposed by electrical system
"end connection" circuit, then the ratio will ilability7(for(o exampl ayabe
increase to 33/8 =4.1 *
increase^
t33 8=41.unavailability
falr)
~~~~~~~~~~~failure).
examp le, a cable

Using this method on the system introduced in As an example of the use of this comparison
Figure 1, the optimum location of the technique, analysis can be performed to
transformer platforms was found. This is determine the economic cable size for a given
illustrated in Figure 4, with the central area load current. Lowest first cost is obtained by
showing the most g favourable locations for a ~~~~~~~~~selecting the smallest cable which, after
single platform, with the two smaller areas accounting for appropriate derating factors, is
indicating the optimum locations for each of a capable of carrying the required current
pair of transformer platforms. without overheating. Increasing the cable size
above this minimum will inevitably increase
the first cost. However, a larger cable will also
have a lower resistance and hence real power
loss for a given load. Total lifetime ownership
costs are the sum of the installed first cost and
the operating costs (principally losses in this
example) over the chosen analysis period.

175.00

- 240zni-2 (nax490A) ll

|125.00 -95m-r2 (nax 290A)

Figure 4 -Optimum Locations forl lll

Transformer Platforms |75.00
| ~~~~~~~~~~
~~Current
~
(A)l
ECONOMIC BASIS OF EQUIPMENT Fiue5lieieCs f3k Ca le
SIZINGFiue5-LftmCoto33VCbs
In order to provide an acceptable return on
investment, the electrical system Of an offshore Fiue5sosacm rsnofletecss
win far mus hav the.... loetpsil.oa for 33kV cables of the type used in an offshore

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 wind farm collection system. Salient points heavily dominated by the first cost. Under
are: these conditions the smallest cable is seen to
1) Installed cost is higher for larger cable, be cheapest. However, as the project lifetime
but losses are lower. is extended, the affect of losses becomes more
2) At the upper end of a cable's capacity, a apparent and beyond 13 years the smallest
much larger cable can offer a lower cable size is no longer the most economical.
lifetime cost. As the lifetime is further extended, then
3) Loss calculation must take account of progressively larger sizes become the most
operating regime and load factor. economic.
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF Increasing the loss cost or project lifetime
CABLE SIZE OPTIMISATION tends to favour larger cable sizes, which is
intuitive and supported by this analysis.
A hypothetical 150MW offshore wind farm Conversely, shorter lifetimes and lower energy
requires 20km of 132kV cable to connect to costs favour least first cost solutions. To put
the grid. A technical assessment has this in a proper context it should be
determined that, after derating factors have remembered that wind farm equipment is
been applied, the smallest cable that is capable designed for in excess of 25 years operating
of safely carrying the wind farm output is life and energy costs are presently increasing
630mm2. The developer is seeking an optimal faster than general inflation.
economic design over the lifetime of the
project and is willing to consider using larger CONCLUSIONS
cables.
Offshore wind farms are rapidly becoming an
The prevailing cost of lost generation, important source of energy. However, like all
including Renewable Obligation Certificates is projects they are sensitive to economic factors.
taken as 6p/kWh. After allowing for the The electrical collection and transmission
expected load duration characteristic of the system is a critical part of an offshore wind
wind farm's output, the annual cost of losses project.
for each cable size under consideration is:
Cable Size Annual Installed Cost Electrical system design selection can have a
Loss Value large impact on the financial performance of a
630mm2 £176k £5.6M scheme. It is essential that it a rigorous
800mm2 £137k £5.9M comparison between designs includes
1000mm2 £ 109k £6.3M appropriate representation of the economic
1200mm2 £94k £6.8M implications of each design. These are typified
Table 1 - 132kV Cable Costs and Losses by the installed cost and operational losses. A
cost effective design is one that minimises the
From this it is possible to calculate the lifetime cost of ownership over the lifetime of a project.
ownership costs of the range of cables
considered, assuming a discount rate of 600 Economic principles should be used to
and this is illustrated in Figure 6. influence the selection of appropriate size
equipment (eg. cable sizes) and also, where it
Lifetime Cost with Losses at £60/MWh and Discount Rate of 6%° n is not subject to other constraints, the location
of key elements of the design (eg. Transformer
platforms).
A carefully designed, optimised electrical
| > ;-800
_ system is a vital requirement for a successful
-A_
-8-
1000
1200
offshore wind farm development.

10 15 20 25 30
Project Lifetime (Years)

Figure 6 - Comparison of 132kV Cable

Lifetime Costs

Unsurprisingly, the analysis confirms that for

short project lives, the lifetime costs are

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 REFERENCES AUTHOR'S ADDRESS
1. Bailey D.I., Offshore Electrical Connections The first author can be contacted at
- Technologies and Costs, Electrical Aspects
of Offshore Renewable Energy Systems, IEE Sinclair Knight Merz,
Colloquium, NAREC, Blyth, Northumberland, Alberton House,
February 2004 St Mary's Parsonage,
Manchester,
2. Walling R.A., Ruddy T., Economic M3 2WJ, UK
Optimization of Offshore Windfarm
Substations and Collection Systems, Fifth phopewellgskm.co.uk
International Workshop on Large-scale
Integration of Wind Power and Transmission
Networks for Offshore Wind Farms, Glasgow,
Scotland, 7-8th April 2005.

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