Cable Connection Optimization for Onshore Wind Farms Considering Restricted Area and Topography

For onshore wind farms where all wind turbine (WT) locations are fixed, it is necessary to design corresponding cable connections to collect electricity generated by each WT. The cable connection system should ensure the collection of electricity successfully and reduce the cable cost optimally. Cables are prohibited from crossing restricted land areas, such as reserves, oil wells, and rocky areas. Therefore, in this article, a restricted area is added to the planning area of onshore wind farms. To obtain more accurate final optimized results, we consider topographic factors of onshore wind farms in the optimization process. The algorithm used for cable connection optimization is the dynamic minimum spanning tree. Results indicate the nonnegligible effects of the restricted area and topographic factors on the cable connection topology. The total cable cost savings can exceed 1.8% compared with the reference cable connection topology, in which the topographic factors and restricted area are not considered.