Methodology for the selection of offshore power transmission options to connect offshore wind power plants

摘要

VSC-HVDC have become a feasible technology to export the energy from offshore wind power plants, however a technical and economic evaluation must be performed to ensure the viability of the project. In the present work a methodology for the evaluation is presented considering the different available connection options such as Medium Voltage AC, High Voltage AC and VSC-HVDC. This is implemented in the electric software DIgSILENT POWERFACTORY by means of the programming language DPL. The implemented code considers the steady-state losses, the planned/unplanned losses costs and also the investment costs capitalized over the whole project life time in order to obtain the long term economic cost for each of the configurations. The defined procedure has been applied for several cases showing the losses and costs and the break-even point in which VSC-HVDC becomes more cost-effective.