Modeling of a wave farm export cable for electro-thermal sizing studies

Abstract So far, only few studies have addressed the techno-economic optimization of an export cable sizing in the specific case of wave energy farms. However, in these works, the cable current rating is determined based on conservative steady-state conditions regarding the farm current output whereas considering dynamic conditions may be more relevant in the case of wave energy applications. However, this implies developing and using dedicated electro-thermal models, which poses a challenge regarding the determination of the modeling fineness level to be adopted for such studies. Hence, this paper presents several numerical models, the most refined of which is compared with experimental data, as well as preliminary cable sizing studies. Contrary to previous works in this field, the fluctuating nature of wave energy is considered here, thus allowing for more realistic results.