Offshore Moonshot successfully landed

Context

In 2021, Group Innovation launched the ambitious Moonshot program to tackle substantial challenges in the energy transition. The Offshore Moonshot, has successfully landed, introducing groundbreaking software to optimize power flows in meshed offshore grids, reduce congestions, and improve security of supply—a true innovation in future offshore grid operation.

Approach

The driving force behind this ambitious project is the ever-growing complexity of our offshore assets. The challenges of the energy transition and the rising demand for renewable energy have led to a significant expansion of offshore wind farms, which require continuous monitoring and optimization, making manual management unsustainable.

The solution is the "Optimizer2.0," an advanced system with predictive and real-time calculation and automation capabilities to optimize grid utilization.

Collaboration across various departments—Innovation, System Operations, Offshore, the Modular Control Centre System (#MCCS) team, and academic and industrial partners—has been crucial to the success of the Moonshot, developing a modular control center solution for diverse challenges instead of separate solutions for each use case.

The Optimizer sends real-time setpoints to wind farms connected to our offshore substations, maximizing renewable energy supply under all conditions, including maintenance and unplanned outages. By analysing real-time data such as wind feed, asset loading and transformer, it aids control centre operators by automating the determination of optimal setpoints.

To ensure scalability, the Optimizer adapts to various factors. Initial offline tests with simple use cases refined the software with feedback from the System Administration team, followed by evaluating and fine-tuning the optimization function with complex use cases, confirming correct behavior across hundreds of test cases.

Next steps

The next phase involves creating a closed loop control by linking the Optimizer's results to actual wind farms, thereby improving operational efficiency and reducing operator manual intervention. Elia Group's Offshore Moonshot is leading the way toward a sustainable and efficient energy future, showcasing the power of innovation in surmounting energy transition challenges.