A study on siting of HVAC offshore substation for wind power plant using submarine cable cost model

Abstract

Development of the technologies for offshore wind power is proceeding actively and the installation capacity is continuously increasing because of its many advantages in comparison with the land wind power. Accordingly, project for Southwestern 2.5GW offshore wind power plant is in progress in Korea. Design of electric power systems for offshore wind power plant is very important due to its high investment and operational costs. Hence, it needs to be designed in order to minimize costs. This way can be employed in determining the installation location of offshore substation for HVAC wind power plant. According to the offshore substation site, MV inter-array cable and HV export cable lengths vary and they change a total cost regarding submarine cable. This paper represents cost models with variables which are MV inter-array cable and HV export cable lengths to locate the offshore substation for HVAC wind power plant. It is classified into submarine cable installation cost, reactive power compensator installation cost, ohmic losses, and unsupplied energy cost. By minimizing a total cost, an appropriate installation site of the offshore substation is determined.