Economics- and reliability-based design for an offshore wind farm

This study examines the optimal offshore wind farm layout for a fixed number of wind turbines and a fixed covered area. After the optimal layout of the turbines is determined, the topology of the cable connections is optimized. The wind decay that is associated with the wake effect is considered, and the CSS algorithm is utilized to obtain the optimal wind-turbine layout that maximizes the power output of the wind farm. WAsP simulation software is utilized to verify the optimality of the layout. Mixed integer linear programming (MILP) is utilized to optimize the topology of radial cable connections. The system reliability for the proposed layout and for the traditional regular layout is considered. Finally, the best wind-farm layout that maximizes wind power output, minimizes cable cost, and maximizes reliability, is obtained.