Offshore wind farm inter-array cable layout

The approach presented in this paper was applied to optimize the electrical inter-array cable systems for Offshore Wind Farms. It is compatible with both radial and branched design philosophies, and can optimize for total cable length, cable cost, and for operational losses. The method yields significant savings in design time and capital expenditure of cable. The full optimization of such a problem is considered mathematically impossible and the method is tailored to provide a near optimal solution in a practical period of time. It enables rapid assessment of vast numbers of different design configurations while progressively refining the electrical system layout design process. A real wind farm example is used to demonstrate the applicability.