Cost Optimized Design for the Local Wind Turbine Grid of an Onshore Wind Farm

This document analyses the problem of designing a minimum cost local wind turbine grid (or LWTG) for an onshore wind farm. The LWTG is responsible for adding up the power of the farm’s wind turbines to then deliver it to a high voltage network. To minimize disruption of agricultural activities, the cables should be laid along underground conduits, parallel to an existing map of roads in the terrain. Hence, connections of onshore wind farms are limited differently from those in offshore ones. This document presents: the technical constraints of such a grid; a combinatorial model to find cost optimal solutions; and also shows some concrete optimal layouts. The work is based upon a real-world project, the Parque Eólico Palomas , a wind farm in Uruguay, a leader country in the usage of renewable energies and environmental care. The results of this research contributed to reduce investment costs of that project, with savings exceeding 30% over manually crafted solutions.