Reducing Operational Costs of Offshore HVDC Energy Export Systems Through Optimized Maintenance

Jan Frederick Unnewehr, Hans-Peter Waldl, Thomas Pahlke, Iván Herráez and Anke Weidlich
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Jan Frederick Unnewehr: Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering, University of Freiburg, Emmy-Noether-Strasse 2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
Hans-Peter Waldl: Overspeed GmbH & CO. KG, Im Technologiepark 4, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
Thomas Pahlke: Overspeed GmbH & CO. KG, Im Technologiepark 4, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
Iván Herráez: University of Applied Science Emden/Leer, Constantiaplatz 4, 26723 Emden, Germany
Anke Weidlich: Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering, University of Freiburg, Emmy-Noether-Strasse 2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: For the grid connection of offshore wind farms today, in many cases a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) connection to the shore is implemented. The scheduled maintenance of the offshore and onshore HVDC stations makes up a significant part of the operational costs of the connected wind farms. The main factor for the maintenance cost is the lost income from the missing energy yield (indirect maintenance costs). In this study, we show an in-depth analysis of the used components, maintenance cycles, maintenance work for the on- and offshore station, and the risks assigned in prolonging the maintenance cycle of the modular multilevel converter (MMC). In addition, we investigate the potential to shift the start date of the maintenance work, based on a forecast of the energy generation. Our findings indicate that an optimized maintenance design with respect to the maintenance behavior of an HVDC energy export system can decrease the maintenance-related energy losses (indirect maintenance costs) for an offshore wind farm to almost one half. It was also shown that direct maintenance costs for the MMC (staff costs) have small effect on the total maintenance costs. This can be explained by the fact that the additional costs for maintenance staff are two orders of magnitude lower than the revenue losses during maintenance.

Keywords: offshore wind energy; transmission system; HVDC; voltage source converter (VSC); maintenance; missing energy export (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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