Cable route optimization for offshore wind farms in morphodynamic areas

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to optimize power cable routing in a wind farm based on the expected morphological behaviour in the design lifetime of an offshore wind farm. Up to now methods to optimize cable route layout in offshore wind farms are only based on a flat seabed and do not take the seabed dynamics into account. For offshore wind farms, migrating seabed features in the form of sand waves are of great importance and may significantly alter the position of the seabed over the life time of the wind farm. This paper discusses the optimization of power cable routing in a morphodynamic seabed by assessing the power cable burial depth in both the vertical plane, e.g. buried deeper in areas where future seabed lowering is expected, and in the horizontal plane, e.g. diverting the power cables around risk prone areas. Outcomes of the proposed method showed both cost and risk reductions for the Hollandse Kust (zuid) Wind Farm case study compared to state-of-the-art optimization based on a fixed burial depth.