Optimization of the Offshore Wind Inter-Array Cable Layout problem using Heuristic based Algorithms

The current work presents an in-exact solution method used to identify feasible, and less costly inter-array cable layout for offshore wind farms. The solution method developed has been built considering the interests of wind farm developers in mind, and to support them in the planning of large offshore wind projects. The objective of the current study is to develop a fast heuristic based algorithm able to find good (less costly), feasible solution, with a small optimality gap. The cable layout problem has been proved to be NP hard, thus, an exact algorithm is likely to have a running time that is an exponential function of the size of the input. Most of the available exact models require fast computers, and hours of computation time to find an optimal solution and still, in large instances of the problem, an optimal solution is not achieved. Although our heuristic does not guarantee an optimal solution, it has the ability to reveal good, feasible solutions in short time frame for large as well as small instances. We have implemented the heuristic in Java, and used in-built as well as customized data structures for improving the running time of the algorithm.