Optimization of the internal grid of an offshore wind farm using Genetic algorithm

Abstract

Offshore wind energy is a promising solution thanks to its best performance of production. However its development leads to many technical and especially economic challenges among them the electrical grid topology attracts a large investment. In this paper, our objective is to minimize a part of this total investment which represents the initial cost of the middle voltage cables in the internal network with different cross sections. An approach based on Genetic Algorithm is developed to find the best topology to connect all wind turbines and substations. The proposed model initially accepts all possible configurations: radial, star, ring, and tree. The results prove that the optimization model can be used for designing the electrical architecture of the internal network of an offshore wind farm.