Optimal design of medium voltage grids of wind farms

Abstract

This paper presents a method for the design of MV underground grids of wind farms. This method formulates the design problem as binary linear optimization problem implemented in MATLAB. Both investment and operation costs are minimized while satisfying constraints on maximum admissible cable current, maximum admissible feeder voltage drop, maximum losses, and on the maximum number of cable types. Not only is the section of the cables but also the number of triplets optimized. Finally, wind farm operation is characterized by a set of power and duration scenarios deduced from the wind generators’ probability density function to take into account wind power variability. The method has been successfully tested for a 44 MW on-shore wind farm.