Complete joint-optimization for offshore wind farm planning

Offshore wind power is continuously developing for renewable energy generation. Generally, the overall planning work of offshore wind farms (OWFs) is divided into wind farm layout optimization (WFLO) and wind farm collector system optimization (WFCSO), which focus on wind turbines’ (WT) micro-siting and sea cables’ network design, respectively. Traditionally, the optimizations on these two subproblems are isolated, which lacks the integral consideration of their co-effect on the optimal planning solution. Moreover, the practicability of these optimizations also remains at a low level, with key practical factors being largely overlooked for the sake of model simplicity. To fill these gaps, this article proposes a complete modelling of the joint-optimization problem for OWF planning with a double-layer optimization framework. It not only considers the interplay between WFLO and WFCSO, but also well integrates all the essential and practical parts together, including the impacts of 3D seabed geography, the scalability to multiple offshore substations, the reliability concerns of WTs’ fatigue, and the layer-wise selection of solving algorithms to suit the different problem natures. The proposed optimization method is tested on a 50 WTs system through comparative studies, and the results verify the necessity of each designed part in the proposed joint planning model.