Bilevel optimization of non-uniform offshore wind farm layout and cable routing for the refined LCOE using an enhanced PSO

The development of wind power is crucial in addressing the global energy and environmental crises. To enhance wind farm efficiency, a novel bilevel non-uniform optimization approach is proposed to conduct the wind farm layout optimization (WFLO) and electrical cable routing (ECR) simultaneously. Additionally, 2D and 3D wake modelling strategies are investigated and validated to accurately evaluate the wind power generation from multiple wind turbines. The refined levelized cost of energy (LCOE), considered as the objective function, is proposed, and validated through two realistic offshore wind farms. Finally, a comparison of the uniform turbine layout optimized using both independent and bilevel optimization strategies, as well as the original layout, reveals that the LCOE decreases by 0.9% and 1.0%, respectively. The results shows that the bilevel optimization approach exhibits a slight advantage. Compared to the uniform optimization, the non-uniform optimization of turbine layout and cable routing shows better performance, with the LCOE reduction of 4.75%, 7.68%, and 9.11% for 2 MW, 3.6 MW and 8 MW, respectively. It concludes that the effectiveness of implementing a non-uniform and uniform turbine layout optimization for turbines with smaller and larger power capacities. The proposed method has the potential to improve offshore wind farm efficiency.