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• Phase 1

Theme 3: The Connection

Presently consented or submitted plans for the UK Rounds 1 and 2 Offshore Wind Farm Developments are all near-shore. Such projects are based on existing technology using ac cables for grid connection. Accordingly the arrangement of the electrical system is the same as for onshore wind farms. Project sites identified in the Crown Estate Round 3, announced in June 2008, are much larger and further offshore where wind conditions are improved and planning restrictions reduced. They represent a total of up to 25 GW capacity but will require a £60-billion investment, albeit one that can repay society with secure, low-carbon energy provided that the operational cost of energy production is satisfactory. It is essential to understand the technical implications and requirements so that future offshore wind farms can operate reliably and efficiently. Theme 3 targets the connection technology needed for UK's Round 3 Offshore wind farm .

This theme will address the technical barriers to the wind farm connection and associated grid capacity issues by investigating, through computer modelling, four sub-objectives:

1. Investigation of connection and control schemes for future large wind farms far offshore, targeting objectives in control performance, reliability, maintainability, and cost effectiveness;
2. Investigation of offshore control schemes so that the wind farms, with added energy storage mechanisms, can be operated reliably as aggregated power plants from the onshore grid point of view, in spite of their composition of a large number of different types of individual turbines;
3. Investigation of onward transmission and compensation schemes for cost reduction and to comply with grid code by collectively providing the desired power control capability and protection functions.
4. Investigation of energy storage solutions to deal with the impact of large offshore wind farms and improve steady-state and transient performance.

The research aims to develop system connection and control schemes that are capable of stable and robust operation, and to optimize the schemes through quantitative evaluation with respect to performance indices in reliability, maintainability and cost effectiveness, through the following four sub-themes:

3.1 System performance evaluation

3.2 Offshore control schemes

3.3 Connection to shore

3.4 Integration of energy storage

26-Jan-2011