Parameterized savings heuristic for optimizing infield cable routing of offshore wind farms

The article discusses an approach to solving the problem of optimizing the routing of infield power cables layout to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of offshore wind farms. Optimization seeks to reduce the total cost of the infield collection system while bearing in mind the constraints including use of sufficiently sized cables and the required absence of cable crossings in the circuit diagram. The problem is a degree-constrained capacitated minimum spanning tree (DCMST) problem with dependent node costs. Search for solution is based on an integrated approach that uses a hybrid optimization algorithm, which combines a parameterized savings heuristic and particle swarm optimization to optimize the parameters of the primary algorithm, ultimately enabling better solutions. Several tests have been performed to compare the constructed circuit diagrams against solutions yielded by other algorithms; tests showed the proposed approach to significantly improve the efficiency of the constructed circuits as demonstrated in a series of tests and evaluated by comparison with other methods, as well as by comparing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the optimized routing against the actual layout of the Walney 1 offshore wind farm.