A Proper Design of Wind Turbine Grounding Systems under Lightning

Authors: M. A. Abd-Allah, Mahmoud N. Ali, A. Said

Abstract:

Lightning protection systems (LPS) for wind power generation is becoming an important public issue. A serious damage of blades, accidents where low-voltage and control circuit breakdowns are frequently occur in many wind farms. A grounding system is one of the most important components required for appropriate LPSs in wind turbines WTs. Proper design of a wind turbine grounding system is demanding and several factors for the proper and effective implementation must taken into account. In this paper proposed procedure of proper design of grounding systems for a wind turbine was introduced. This procedure depends on measuring of ground current of simulated wind farm under lightning taking into consideration the soil ionization. The procedure also includes the Ground Potential Rise (GPR) and the voltage distributions at ground surface level and Touch potential. In particular, the contribution of mitigating techniques, such as rings, rods and the proposed design were investigated.

Keywords: WTs, LPS, GPR, Grounding System, Mitigating techniques.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1337477

References:

[1] IEC TR 61400-24, "Wind Turbine Generator Systems-Part 24: Lightning Protection", 2002.
[2] Yasuda Y and Funabashi T,” Analysis on Back-Flow Surge in Wind Farms.”, IPST’07, Lyon, France, June 4-7, 2007.
[3] CYMGRD User’s Guide and Reference Manual, March 1995.
[4] I. Cotton, "Windfarm Earthing”, Proc. International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering, Vol.2, pp. 288-291, London, UK, 1999
[5] N. Hatziargyrious, M. Lorentzou, I. Cotton, N. Jenkins, "Transferred Overvoltages by Windfarm Grounding Systems” Proceedings of ICHQP conference, Athens, Greece, 1998
[6] M. Lorentzou, N. Hatziargyrious, B. Papadias, "Analysis of Wind Turbine Grounding System”, Proc. 10th Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference (MELECON 2000), Vol. 3, pp. 936-939, 2000
[7] ANSI/IEEE Std 80-1986” Ac Substation Grounding”
[8] Amr M. Abd_Elhady, Nehmdoh A. Sabiha and Mohamed A. Izzularab,” Overvoltage Investigation Of Wind Farm Under Lightning Strokes”, IET Conference on Renewable Power Generation (RPG, 2011).
[9] P. Pinceti and M. Giannettoni, "A Simplified Model for Zinc Oxide Surge Arresters", IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 14, No. 2, PP. 393-398, April 1999.
[10] "IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Groundin”, IEEE Std. 80, USA, 2000