Optimal Sizing and Arrangement of Tidal Current Farm

This paper proposes a bi-level programming-based optimization method to determine the sizing of tidal current farm (TCF) and the arrangement of tidal current turbines reaching the minimized comprehensive generation cost of tidal power. Not only the characteristics of tidal current velocity and wake effects but also the economic costs and environmental benefits brought by TCF integration are all incorporated in the proposed method. The method includes a power output model of TCF that can capture the characteristics of tidal current velocity and turbine wake effects, and a bi-level optimization model that takes into account the penalty costs of greenhouse gas emissions, the operation costs of power system, and the investment cost of tidal current turbines. The bi-level model is solved using a genetic algorithm and a quadratic programming technique. The effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed method are demonstrated using the measured data of tidal current velocity and the IEEE 30-bus test system.