1. Introduction

1.1. Purpose of the Design Tools

1.1.1. Technical Design and Assessment

The software generated by DTOcean project automates the design of a feasible array of ocean energy converters (OECs) for a relevant geographical location and technology type. The design process is modularised into the following stages:

  • Hydrodynamics: designs the layout of converters in a chosen region and calculates their power output
  • Electrical Sub-Systems: designs an electrical layout for the given converter locations and calculates the electrical energy exported to shore
  • Moorings and Foundations: designs the foundations and moorings required to secure the converters at their given locations
  • Installation: designs the installation plan for the energy converters and the components required to satisfy the electrical sub-system and moorings and foundations designs
  • Operations and Maintenance: calculates the required maintenance actions and power losses resulting from the operation of the converters over the lifetime of the array

The software can evaluate each stage of the design, and the design as a whole, using three thematic assessments. These are:

  • Economics: produces economic indicators for the design, in particular the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE)
  • Reliability: assesses the reliability of the components in the design over the array lifetime
  • Environmental: assesses the environmental impact of each stage of the design

The challenge and ultimate goal of the project is to optimise the designs created by the software, against a suitable metric, chosen as the LCOE.

1.1.2. Optimisation

Each of design stages described above can operate independently, given the necessary input data is satisfied. To ensure a result when each module is run independently from other stages of the design, it must conform to a local optimisation criterion. Thus, for each stage, these criteria are:

  • Hydrodynamics: power generation of the converters
  • Electrical Sub-Systems: capital cost of components vs electrical power losses
  • Moorings and Foundations: capital cost of components
  • Installation: cost of installation of OEC devices and components
  • Operations and Maintenance: cost of maintenance activities vs electrical power losses

When running all the stages of the design to get an optimal solution, then a global decision tool is required to manipulate the solutions and operation of the modules to approach the global optimum, as the local optimisation routines at each stage cannot achieve this purpose.

1.1.3. Legacy

This software is released under the GNU General Public License Version 3 (GNU GPLv3) to facilitate future use and development of the software.

1.2. Components of the Design Tools

A general overview of the structure of the software and a complete description of the computational components is found in Requirements for Implementing the Design Tools. The key components that are defined there can be summarised as follows:

  • Core: The core describes the main interface between the computational modules, thematic algorithms and the database.
  • Database: The database contains long standing reference data and data relating to particular array design projects.
  • Graphical User Interface (GUI): The GUI provides an easy to use method for the user of the design tools to interact with the components described above.
  • Computational Modules: The programmatic description of the design stages detailed above.
  • Thematic Algorithms: The programmatic description of the thematic assessments described above.