Evaluation of the energy demands for a floating O&M-hub

Abstract

The Energyhub@Sea concept is one of the four research applications of the Space@Sea project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research program (GA number: 774253). The focus of this paper is the evaluation of the energy demands of an energy self-sufficient maintenance platform at the location of Helgoland in the North Sea. In view of this, a standardized modular floater was developed as an offshore wind operation and maintenance base, which in the following paper is referred to as an O&M hub. The O&M hub is intended to be equipped with accommodation facilities and various renewable energy infrastructure as well as spare parts logistics, enabling the platform to perform maintenance of offshore gearless wind turbines with a capacity of up to 10 MW. To be energy self-sustaining, an energy supply system for the hub was developed and simulated at a resolution of ten minutes by means of the Top-Energy simulation software, a commercial software tool. As a basis for the simulation, an approach for the automated determination of flexible load profiles, in resolutions of up to ten minutes was developed. This load profile generator creates load profiles on the basis of environmental conditions, technical characteristics, and expected behaviors of the inhabitants. On the basis of the generated load profiles, a first layout (referred to as baseline scenario) for the different components of the energy system was evaluated and tested through simulation. In a second step, three optimization scenarios were developed and simulated with regards to the financial feasibility of the Energyhub.