DEVELOPMENT OF SOFTWARE FOR SIZING OF INSULATED CABLES OF WIND FARMS, WHEREAS TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC CRITERIA FOR THE OPTIMIZATION OF COSTS.
Underground Cables, Sizing e Optimization.
In Brazil there are 794,699 km of networks and only 12,348 km are of underground networks,
that is, less than 2%, and the others are from overhead electricity distribution networks.
However, it is estimated that about 30% of the total wind farms in operation, that is, more than
3,000MW were built using underground networks. The proper sizing of these networks is of
fundamental importance for correct functioning and guarantee of return of investments. Current
projects and computer programs for project support take into account only criteria for
conduction, voltage drop and / or loss of energy. This is because the initial costs are lower, but
for all lifecycle of the wind farm the losses and operating costs can be much higher, reducing
profits in other years. Besides that, this type of network has a high cost and the need to maintain
high levels of reliability and operation for its use, it is necessary to develop more tools for proper
sizing to ensure optimum resource allocation and operational efficiency, By reducing operational
costs, increasing the useful life, as well as avoiding loss of revenue due to lost profits. The
objective of the present work is to analyze the main technical and economic criteria for the
design of medium voltage underground networks in wind farms aiming at cost optimization
throughout life, as well as the development of a web platform computer program that allows
integrating the technical and economic tools, with a specific methodology based on norms for the
adequate dimensioning.