Reliability analysis of offshore grids: An overview of recent research

For the future, a large-scale expansion of offshore wind energy is expected in Europe. To collect this wind energy and to enable electricity trading between countries, an offshore network will be implemented in the North Sea. Maintaining a high level of security of supply at affordable costs is one of the key objectives in the design and operation of power systems and therefore, the reliability of offshore grids is an important topic of discussion. Whereas onshore, the security of supply is assured by reliability criteria like n-1 redundancy, the same n-1 redundancy might not be an economical solution for offshore networks. For todays (small) offshore networks, n-1 redundancy is hardly economically justifiable, seen from a wind farm owner's point of view. The question then arises how the reliability of large-scale offshore networks should be evaluated and what measures can be taken to maintain a high security of supply onshore. This paper aims at discussing this topic by reviewing the results of recent research work. It is found that whereas for smaller offshore networks reliability evaluation is mainly an economic analysis seen from a wind farm owner's point of view, for large-scale offshore networks, it is necessary to consider the interaction of offshore–onshore networks in reliability analysis. It is proposed to analyze the reliability of combined offshore–onshore power systems in an integrated approach, such that various (offshore and onshore) measures can be considered to find the most economical solution. This article is categorized under: Wind Power > Systems and Infrastructure Energy Infrastructure > Systems and Infrastructure Energy Systems Economics > Systems and Infrastructure.