Combined Layout Optimization of Wind Farm and Cable Connection on Complex Terrain Using a Genetic Algorithm

To improve the economic efficiency of wind farms, this paper proposes a method for simultaneously optimizing wind farm layout and cabling on complex terrain such as mountainous areas, which most previous studies have not considered. Multiple wind turbines should be placed to maximize energy production while minimizing the cable length (between wind turbines and between the substation and wind turbines). To optimize both, especially on complex terrain where wind speeds at a site are not constant, the proposed method combines a genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and a capacitated minimum spanning tree approximation algorithm (Esau-Williams algorithm). For five sites with complex terrain, the proposed method is compared with the exact optimal solution obtained by the weighted sum method using the integer linear programming formulation. For a small number of candidate locations, the proposed method obtains a hyper-volume equivalent to the exact solution. In comparison, the proposed method can obtain a larger hyper-volume even in the case of many candidate locations where the weighted sum method is computationally infeasible in terms of practical resources and time. These results indicate that the proposed method effectively contributes to the wind farm design on complex terrain.