The aim of this paper is to present a hybrid AC-DC offshore wind power plant (OWPP) topology and to optimize its design in order to minimize the OWPP's total cost. This hybrid concept is based on clustering wind turbines and connecting each group to an AC/DC power converter installed on a collector platform which is located between the AC wind turbine array and the HVDC offshore platform. Thereby, individual power converters of each wind turbine are not required, since such AC/DC converters can provide variable speed generator control for each cluster. The optimal design for an OWPP based on the hybrid AC-DC topology is formulated as a MINLP problem. The capital costs of each component within the OWPP as well as the costs associated to the inherent losses of this topology are minimized. The optimal number of AC/DC converters and offshore collector platforms needed, as well as their locations, are determined. The cable route connecting the wind turbines between each other is also optimized. The results suggests a good potential for the hybrid AC-DC OWPP topology achieving a total cost saving of 3.76% for the case study compared to the conventional OWPP topology.
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