Next Generation HVDC Network for the Offshore Renewable Energy Industry

Currently, HVDC technologies are being developed for the purposes of connecting an offshore wind farm to both the grid network and other wind farms. This is particularly important when considering the long transmission distances that need to be overcome for the planned UK Round 3 offshore wind farms and also longer term projects such as the European Supergrid. However, the technologies do not consider the use of HVDC technology beyond the substation of the offshore wind farm. This project concerns the development of a HVDC concept for power collection, transmission and distribution within an offshore wind farm.
The project aims to investigate the feasibility of such a concept and focus on some of the components and sub-systems that would be present in the tower and/or nacelle of each wind turbine. This includes the early development of a hybrid HVDC transformer. The concept addressed by the project offers great potential in terms of adding flexibility and redundancy into an offshore wind farm. This is particularly important for offshore wind farms where access for maintenance operations will be limited. However, perhaps the most notable advantage of this concept is its potential to reduce or even eliminate the need for an offshore substation which is one of the most expensive components in an offshore wind farm system.