From TPL assessment to design optimization: Wave energy converter control co-design applied to the RM3

Daniel T. Gaebele, Megan L. Anderson, Aeron L. Roach, Dominic D. Forbush, Jesse D. Roberts and Jochem Weber

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 241, issue C

Abstract: The Reference Model (RM) project developed six marine energy converter concepts using a sequential design methodology, which, while widely adopted in the industry, often overlooks interactions between system components, resulting in suboptimal designs. One such example is the Reference Model 3 (RM3), a two-body point absorber wave energy converter (WEC). An assessment using the Technology Performance Level (TPL) revealed that RM3’s low power-to-cost ratio, partly due to expensive steel construction, limits its techno-economic performance. This study aims to redesign RM3 by reducing its scale and employing control co-design to integrate WEC and Power Take-Off (PTO) dynamics, constraints, and cost considerations within an optimization framework. We demonstrate the limitations of RM3’s current PTO design and explore the benefits of scaling down to enhance techno-economic viability by lowering material costs. Using WecOptTool, we conduct a parameter sweep over gear ratios and spring stiffnesses for various Commercial Off-The-Shelf generators in irregular wave conditions. Our findings emphasize the importance of aligning PTO components with WEC dynamics, showing that control co-design and strategic scaling can improve RM3’s power-to-cost ratio. This study presents a transferable example of applied control co-design for other WECs, supporting early-stage developers in their design decisions.

Keywords: Wave energy converter control co-design; Reference model project; Off the shelf components; TPL to redsign; RM3; wecOptTool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:241:y:2025:i:c:s0960148124024066

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.122338

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