In order to develop a criterion for high-voltage submarine cable selection in offshore wind farms that take the characteristics of submarine cable’s life-cycle into consideration

we created a life cycle cost（LCC） model of high-voltage submarine cable under the constraint that the capacity of submarine cable transmission is greater than that of designed wind power output. The model includes the costs of input

laying

electricity loss

failure

maintenance

and recycling net investment. Then the selection criterion is to achieve the minimum equivalent uniform annual worth of LCC. Case study of a Chinese offshore wind farm submarine cable selection is proposed. The results show that

the costs of input

electricity loss and failure comprise the largest portions of LCC

which are up to 26.4%

30.8% and 62.0%

respectively

and the maximum front-end investment is less than 40% of the LCC. At the same voltage level

the electricity loss for a single core cable plan is 4.68×107 RMB more than that for a three-core cable plan at least. With the same core number

the cost of failure in a high-voltage submarine cable plan is 8.8×107 RMB more than that of a low-voltage plan at least. The optimal plan is to have two circuits of 110 k V 3×500 mm2 high-voltage XLPE insulation steel-wire-armored submarine cable

since its equivalent uniform annual worth of LCC（3.08×107 RMB/a） is the smallest.