Electrical collection systems for offshore wind farms — a review

A review of the electrical collection systems in offshore wind farms (OWFs) is presented in this paper. The review is based on a categorization of offshore wind power electrical collection systems. The classification encompasses three categories of electrical collection systems, medium voltage AC collection, medium voltage DC collection systems and low frequency AC collection systems (LFAC). This paper summarizes the related research on different collection systems and explores their operational characteristics and challenges. As the initial cost of an OWF is very much influenced, to a great extent, by the configuration of electrical collection and transmission systems, it is necessary to understand the key components and challenges in each collection system configuration.