Optimized design of collector topology for offshore wind farm based on ant colony optimization with multiple travelling salesman problem

A layout of the offshore wind farm(OSWF)plays a vital role in its capital cost of installation. One of the major contributions in the installation cost is electrical collector system(ECS). ECS includes: submarine cables,number of wind turbines(WTs), offshore platforms etc. By considering the above mentioned problem having an optimized design of OSWF provides the better feasibility in terms of economic considerations. This paper explains the methodology for optimized designing of ECS. The proposed methodology is based on combined elitist ant colony optimization and multiple travelling salesman problem.The objective is to minimize the length of submarine cable connected between WTs and to minimize the wake loss in the wind farm in order to reduce the cost of cable and cable power loss. The methodology is applied on North Hoyle and Horns Rev OSWFs connected with 30 and 80 WTs respectively and the results are presented.