Smart grid for offshore wind farms: Towards an information model based on the IEC 61400-25 standard

Nowadays, wind energy is one of the most recognized renewable energy sources. Onshore wind farms have been built in many countries, such as Denmark, Norway, UK, Italy, Brazil and the US. To utilize the more stable wind resources, wind farms have moved off the shore, first to shallow waters near shore and now extending to deeper waters and far off the shore. Deep-water offshore solutions will give access to large areas with high wind, and less sensitivity to noise, visual impacts and size. However, the cost of developing and operating an offshore wind farm is many times larger than onshore due to large water depths and harsh offshore environments. Hence, the needs for fast and automatic data exchange in offshore wind industry are required more than ever. A smart grid is one of the technologies which will help the wind industry to effectively use wind power plants and reduce cost of operation and maintenance. The aim of this work is to develop a flexible information model for offshore smart grids, which can keep pace with the current rapid development of wind turbine technology. In this work, we choose the existing IEC 61400-25 standard as a starting point for developing an information model for offshore wind smart grid communication.