Offshore Transmission Network Planning for Wind Integration Considering AC and DC Transmission Options

Along with development of remote wind farms, offshore transmission networks become an integral part of wider transmission system. In this paper, an offshore transmission network planning (TNP) model is proposed for large-scale wind integration. The proposed approach allows system planners to evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of a range of potential network and non-network options considering a variety of uncertainties. The framework can be divided into one high-level planning problem determining a suitable type of power transmission technology and network routine over given planning horizon, and several low-level problems that examine the feasibility and optimality of the solution from the high-level problem considering different remedial action schemes, which is expected to reduce the need for adding new lines considering a broad range of uncertainty during system operation. Numerical examples on an IEEE 14-bus test system and an Australian regional transmission grid illustrate the performance of the proposed TNP model.