SOBeKo: Market-Oriented Optimization of Operating Concepts for Wind Farms

At a glance

• In the future, the marketing of wind energy will be increasingly determined by fluctuating prices on the energy exchange.
• In order to be able to generate and market their electricity at the best times possible, offshore operators need to be able to attune their operational management strategy (O&M) to the power market and thus to the weather data.
• In the SOBeKo project, the parties involved aim not only to develop corresponding concepts, but also to provide a software tool which integrates and automatically simulates a wide range of risks when considering the different O&M strategies.
• The Fraunhofer IWES, which is coordinating the project, is responsible for the further development of the existing strategy software OffshoreTIMES in a sub-project.

The challenge

In the future, offshore wind farms will increasingly be able to market their energy without fixed feed-in tariffs, and marketing it with the fluctuating electricity prices will therefore put high cost pressure on the operating phase of the wind farms. As a result, it can be assumed that operation and maintenance will be actively coordinated to the fluctuating electricity price in order to generate and sell electricity when prices are high.

The solution

At the same time, new technical developments show that, on the one hand, wind turbines – especially offshore – are becoming ever larger and more high-performance, and in parallel many of the tasks can be performed digitally or by robots.

The aim of the SOBeKo project is to integrate these three developments into the operational management of an offshore wind farm. Simulations of the operation and maintenance phase are intended to enable the different stakeholders in O&M and wind power marketing to compare and select new technologies and processes already in the planning phase of the wind farm. Upon completion of the project, a tool will be available for the simulation and evaluation of the O&M phase taking the fluctuating electricity prices and local weather conditions into consideration.

The added value

The Fraunhofer IWES is coordinating the project and is responsible for the further development of the existing strategy software OffshoreTIMES in a sub-project. The aim is to extend software so that a wide variety of data such as electricity price forecasts and weather data can be integrated and automatically simulated when considering the different O&M strategies.