1

Abstract As one of the renewable and clean energy resources,

wind power is attracting considerable attention and becoming
most developing renewable energy resources due to its large unit
capacity, etc. However, in some areas of the world, such as in
Japan, there are some geographical and electrical restrictions for
land wind generation. Since few suitable construction sites can be
found and the power system near to the wind farm is too weak to
sustain the power fluctuation caused by wind power, the
introduction of large amount of land wind power tends to be
extremely difficulty and even impossible. In this case, offshore
wind farm is a good and only way to increase the wind power
generation. For this purpose, a basic research of offshore wind
generation system is done in this study for identifying its
fundamental behaviors. In this paper, the preparation of offshore
data for conducting simulation, the basic study on its construction,
the method of power transmission and the control of power
equipments of an offshore wind generation system, with which a
self-commutated HVDC transmission system is adopted to
transmit wind power from offshore to land, are investigated and
presented. As a result of the simulation study with a typical one-
machine infinite bus power system model on PSCAD/EMTDC
platform, the characteristics of offshore wind are clarified, and
furthermore, the behaviors of the proposed system are verified as
well.
Index TermsRenewable Energy, Wind Power, Offshore
Wind, Generation System, Self-Commuted HVDC, Construction,
Control
I. INTRODUCTION
ind power generation has several good properties
such as environmental friendly, large capacity, easy to
develop large scale wind farm and be therefore
considered most promising renewable energy resource.
However, some problems exist to obstruct the increase of wind
power introduction capacity in some areas of the world, such
as in Japan. These major technical problems may be
geographical restrictions and electrical restrictions. In case of
Japan, 70% of land is covered by mountainous and there are
not many plain fields, and therefore few suitable sites with
stably blowing wind can be found for building large land wind
farms. Furthermore, most of the wind farm can be only built in
remote areas where is away from the main power system
network, and the power systems to which the wind farms are
connecting are fragile for sustaining the power fluctuation
caused by wind power generation. To resolve these problems,
offshore wind farm is considered the best and the only way for
Y. Tohbai, G. Wu ande H. Guo are with the Department of Electrical
Engineering and Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku
Gakuin University
(e-mail: zundama@gmail.com ).
1-13-1, Chuo, Tagajo, Miyagi-ken, 985-8537, Japan
future development of wind power. Recently, the development
of offshore wind power is attracting considerable attentions
and some experimental prototype ones have been completed or
under construction
[1][2]
. For such kind of complicated system,
many works are considered need to be studied and clarified.
However, up to now, just few papers on this field can be found.
For this purpose, in this work, we try to make a basic research
by taking consideration of the following aspects:
(1) Selection of the best location suitable for introducing
offshore wind power generation
(2) Preparation of offshore wind data
(3) Identification of the difference of wind and power
output between land and offshore wind power generation
(4) Structure of offshore wind power generation system
(5) Appropriate power transmission circuits for transmitting
offshore wind power to land
(6) Basic design of the circuits and control system
(7) Verification of the basic operation and behaviors of the
designed system
II. PROPERTIES OF OFFSHORE WIND
Compared with the land wind, offshore wind has the
advantages of:
Easy to find suitable sites. One of the geographical
problems for increasing land wind power generation capacity
may be that few suitable sites can be obtained. In some
countries like Japan, there are not much plain fields like
Europe where are suitable for building large scale land wind
farms. On the other hand, since being surrounded by oceans,
there exist many good sites for offshore wind farms.
Excellent wind profile. Wind profile is an extremely
important issue. Since land wind is strongly influenced by
those obstructions on the land, normally its condition is not so
good, e.g. containing sharp fluctuation, giving lower power
output on account of too much extremely low wind velocity.
Whereas offshore wind condition is much better, since it is flat
and there are few obstacles on the sea.
Good economical effects can be expected from offshore
wind generation, such as better capacity utilization, decrease in
the investment in other fluctuation suppressing devices (large
capacity battery, etc).
III. OFFSHORE WIND DATA
3.1 General Information
Because no measured wind data for offshore wind power
introduction are reported in Japan, the offshore wind data used
for simulation study need to be properly created in this work.
For this purpose, wind profile data of the year of 2000, which
were measured by wind generation field test program at
ABasic Study on Construction and Control of
Offshore Wind Power Generation System
Yuya.Tohbai, Non-Member, Guohong Wu , Member, IEEE
W
IEEE T&D Asia 2009
2
Chousi city, Chiba Prefecture of Japan (Facing Pacific Ocean)
by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization)
[3]
, are adopted and properly
modified to that of offshore wind . By taking consideration of
the wind condition, meteorological condition and the local
power network condition, we assume that the offshore wind
farm may be possibly built locating at 30 km offshore from
Chousi city. As for the time of wind data, the reason why we
have chosen the year of 2000 is because that there was not any
abnormal weather condition reported at this year according to
the statistics of Japan Meteorological Bureau.
3.2 Selection of Proper Location and Time for Offshore Wind
When creating the wind data, in order to reflect the typical
characteristics of offshore wind, besides those measured data
from Japan Meteorological Bureau, we have also referred to
the simulation results of offshore wind condition by Dr. A.
Yamaguchi
[4]
. Fig.1 is a plot of the strength of offshore wind
and Fig. 2 shows the direction of the wind in Chousi city based
on the simulation results by [4]. From these figures, the
following facts are revealed:
Fig. 1. Simulation Result of Wind Condition at Offshore
near the Coast of Chousi City
Fig. 2. Wind Data of February and June at the Coast of Chousi City
(1) The surface of the sea near the Coast of Chousi city is
one of the best places where the strongest offshore wind is
flowing.
(2) At the point of Chousi city, the wind from northwest
direction (land side) prevails in February and is therefore
called Land Wind, and in June, the wind from southwest
direction (Pacific Ocean side) prevails and is called Offshore
Wind. According to this fact, it appears possible and
meaningful to make comparison between land wind and
offshore wind since we can obtain both of these wind data at
the same measuring point.
3.3 Modification of Land wind Data to Offshore Wind Data
The above mentioned wind data from NEDO project is
measured at the coast and at a height of horizontal 20 meters.
However, the future offshore wind farm are supposed to be
30km offshore from the coast and those turbine generators are
considered to be at least 2MW classes with tower height of
nearly 80 meters. Thus, the obtained wind data need be
modified in two ways: first to that of 80m height and then to
that of 30km offshore. By use of the following formulation, the
wind data with different height can be obtained
[5]
.
where, U and U
i
are the wind speed at height Z and Z
i
respectively, and n is an exponential coefficient (7.0 is used in
this study)
Meanwhile, offshore wind speed accelerates since it is not
hindered against obstacles on the sea. Based on the statistical
data, wind speed at the point of 30km offshore is considered to
be 20% increasing from that of the observation point at the
coast. Based on the above modification, the wind data of
offshore wind and land wind are shown in Fig.3.

(a) Change of Wind Speed

(b) Standard Deviation of Wind Speed

Fig.3. Comparison of Wind Profile between Offshore Wind and Land Wind
From Fig.3, we can know the following facts:
Wind speed. OIIshore wind speed is obviously stronger
than that of land wind. In this case, a difference of 2.33 [m/s]
on an average can be observed. Since the wind energy is third
power of the wind speed, the energy obtained from offshore
wind can be possibly 2.4 times of that of land wind.
Standard deviation oI wind speed. Standard deviation oI
land wind speed appears dramatically fluctuation when wind
speed increases. On the other hand, that of offshore wind
speed seems much flat.
IV. STRUCTURE OF OFFSHORE POWER GENERATION
SYSTEM
In this study, a self-commuted HVDC is recommended for
transmitting wind power to the land for an offshore wind
power generation system. This is because of the following
reasons.
(1) Compared with AC cable transmission line, DC cable is
not affected by capacitive charging currents, and this leads to
much lower loss in transmission line. Even taking
consideration of the cost of expensive converter stations at
both transmission circuit ends and the high semiconductor
losses due to high-frequency Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
switching, HVDC transmission are still a feasible and
3
competitive alternative to traditional high voltage alternating
current (HVAC) transmission.
(2) Self-commuted HVDC system can be expected to
stabilize the whole system and AC network at their connection
points by properly control its active power and reactive power
output independently.
The proposed typical structure of an offshore wind farm
system is given in Fig. 4. It can be seen that the whole system
consists of offshore wind farm, converter station at sending
side (transformer and bridge circuits), DC transmission circuit
(DC filters and capacitors, submarine DC cable), inverter
station at receiving side (transformer and bridge circuits), and
their control systems. Switching devices for both of converter
and inverter are using IGBT modulated by PWM.
Fig.4. Offshore Wind Farm system
As the beginning work, a simple first-order lag control is first
used for both converter and inverter sides. At the converter
side, AVR (Automatic DC Voltage Regulator) control and
power factor control are considered, and at the inverter side,
ACR (Automatic AC Current Regulator) control and APR
(Automatic active Power Regulator) control are adopted.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
Digital simulations by use of PSCAD/EMTDC are conducted
to verify the basic properties of this system shown in Fig. 4.
These simulations include the following concepts:
x By taking consideration of the characteristics of wind
mill and wind turbine generator, the amount of
acquirable wind power output with land wind and
offshore wind are investigated and compared.
x As the first step of this work, main attentions are paid
to the behaviors of the self-commuted HVDC. For this
purpose, a simplified model of Fig.4 is thought out for
verifying the basic operation of the proposed wind
power system.
4.1 Acquirable Wind Power Output
It is known that the offshore wind is more stable and may
create greatly higher energy than the land wind from the wind
data results of section III. The purpose of this simulation is to
observe the amount and properties of the acquirable power
outputs obtained from offshore wind and thus to study the
economical effect of offshore wind power introduction, and
meanwhile to make a clear distinction between the power
outputs with land wind and offshore wind. For doing this, a
basic study model with a configuration of One Machine
Infinite Bus Model (wind generator is directly connected to the
power network) is used for obtaining the wind power output,
wind data (land and offshore) are those derived in Section III.
In this case, wind turbine generator is a synchronous one with
(a) Active Power Output of Land Wind Power Generation
(b) Active Power Output of Offshore Wind Power Generation
Fig.5 Comparison of Active Power Output between Offshore Wind
and Land Wind
capacity of 2MW, its active power with offshore wind and
land wind are shown in Fig.5 (a) and (b), respectively.
It can be obviously seen from Fig.5 that the active power
output is distinctly different in this cases. In the case of
offshore wind, power output is considerably higher than that of
land wind; and relatively few blasts and sharp fluctuations
appear in the active power output.
4.2 Operation of the Whole System
A simplified model of Fig.4 is used for identifying the
operation of the whole system, which is given in Fig.6. In this
model, the wind turbine generator with capacity of 200MVA
(equivalent machine) is assumed to send power via a self-
commuted HVDC transmission line to the infinite bus (power
system on the land), and control system for converter and
inverter are the same as that of Fig.4.
33/300KV

DC 150KV 300/75KV
WG
100MVA
Wind Generator
Bulk power system HVDC Transmission Line
150/66KV
33/150KV
200MVA
DC150KV
Wind Generator
HVDC Transmission Line
Bulk Power
150/66KV
Bus1 Bus2 Bus3 Bus4
Transmission Distance 30km
System
Component Control Methods
Generator PSS, Pitch Angle Control
Converter AVR (PWM) ,Power Factor Control
Inverter ACR (PWM), APR (PWM)
Fig.6 Power System Model and Control Methods
Control systems and parameters in Fig.6 are given in Fig.7.
The DC voltage and active power for both sides of HVDC
circuit are given in Fig. 8.
It can be known from Fig.8 that DC Voltage can be kept in
constant value and very near but a little bit less than initially
envisioned. Active power figures show that both of the sending
and receiving side can keep stable operation, and because of
the loss in HVDC circuit, the active power of receiving side is
less than that of sending side.
Because of the time limitation, only steady-state operation of
the proposed wind power generation system and its controls
Main: Graphs
Time[s]
0 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 132 144
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
A
c
tiv
e
P
o
w
e
r
[M
W
]
OFFSHORE
Main : Graphs
Time[s] 0 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 132 144
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
A
c
tiv
e
P
o
w
e
r[M
W
]
LANDWIND
4
PWM
st
G
1
Reference DC Voltage
Detected DC Voltage
Mag
(a ) AVR Control Block of Converter at Sending side
PWM
Measured Phase
Angle [Bulk]
Measured Phase
Angle [Inverter]
Active Power
Ts
G
1
b APR Control Block of Inverter at Receiving side
Fig.7 Control Block for Offshore Wind Power Generation System
Main: Graphs
5.00 5.50 6.00 6.50 7.00 7.50 8.00
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
y
DCvoltage
V
o
lt
a
g
e
[
K
V
]
Time [s]
(a) HVDC DC Voltage
Main,Untitled_8: Graphs
Time[s]
5.00 5.50 6.00 6.50 7.00 7.50 8.00
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
A
c
t
iv
e
P
o
w
e
r
[
p
.
u
]
OWFP VP P at Sending Side P at receiving side
(b) Active Power of Sending Side and Receiving Side of HVDC
Fig.8 Simulation Results of DC Voltage and Active Power s
are verified. More studies on the transient operating condition
and control effects will be further investigated.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
As the beginning work of offshore wind power generation
system, a basic study on properties of offshore wind and its
power generation, construction of the whole system and power
transmission circuit, are discussed and proposed in this paper.
The results of this study reveal the following facts:
Offshore wind is stronger and more stable than land
wind;
Power generation by the offshore wind is considerably
higher than that of the land wind, and few blasts and
sharp fluctuations appear in the active power output;
Self-commuted HVDC transmission is suitable for
offshore wind power transport, and stable operation can
be obtained by properly designed control system for both
its converter and inverter sides.
Basic operation and control behaviors of the designed
offshore wind generation system are verified.
As for the further work, simulation studies of offshore wind
generation system based on the actual one and an effective
control system will be further discussed and verified. In
addition, a quantitatively approach of the introducing effects of
offshore wind power generation from economical points of
view will be carried on.
VII. REFERENCES
[1] Gerhard Gerdes, Albrecht Tiedemanndrs. Sjoerd Zeelenberg:
Case Study: European Offshore Wind Farms - A Survey for the
Analysis of the Experiences and Lessons Learnt by Developers of
Offshore Wind Farms Final report, down load from network
[2] Stephan Meier Novel Voltage Source Converter based HVDC
Transmission System for Offshore Wind Farms, KTH Electrical
Engineering, Stockholm 2005
[3] New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization WEB SITE: http://www.nedo.go.jp/
[4] Atsushi YAMAGUCHI, Takeshi ISHIHARA: An assessment of
offshore wind energy potential using mesoscale model and
geographic information system, Journal of Wind Engineering,
JAWE Vol.32, No.2 (No.111), April 2007, pp63-76 (in Japanese)
[5] Kenichi Tanomura, Junichi Arai, Yasuhiro Noro, Kikuo Takagi,
Masakazu Kato: New Control for HVDC System Connected to
Large Wind farm, IEEJ Trans. PE., Vol.126, No6, 2006, p619-626
(in Japanese)
[6] Sea Breeze Olympic Converter, LP HVDC Light: Technical
Background . URL http://www.abb.com/hvdc
VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Yuya Tohbai was born in Isinomaki in Japan, on February 1, 1985. He
received the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from
Tohoku Gakuin University, Tagajyo, Japan, in 2009, He is
currently Ph.D. student at Tohoku Gakuin University, his
research interests lie in the areas of renewable energy
sources. He is a student member of and IEE-Japan.
Guohong Wu was born in Tianjin, China. He received his B.S. and M.S.
degrees in electrical engineering from Tianjin University,
China in 1989 and 1994, respectively. In 1998, he received
a joint-supervised Ph.D. degree from the University of
Tokyo, Japan and Tianjin University, China. He was with
the University of Tokyo, the Tohoku University, Japan
from 1995 to 2004. He is currently an associate professor
of Electrical and Information Technology Engineering at
the Tohoku Gakuin University, Japan. His research
interests are in the areas of renewable energy & alternative generation
technology, power system stability, FACTS devices, superconductivity
application to power systems, HVDC systems. He is a member of IEEE and
IEE-Japan.