A Review of Current Issues in State-of-Art of Wind Farm Overvoltage Protection

This paper elaborates on several important outstanding issues in the state-of-art of overvoltage protection selection for modern wind farms. The lack of experience with this still-new technology, together with the inherent complexity of wind farm electrical systems, entails several unresolved issues pertinent to the topic of overvoltage protection, particularly in relation to lightning-initiated surges. Firstly, several aspects of the wind turbine lightning incidence, along with the issues related to the selection of lightning current parameters (pertinent to the wind farm overvoltage protection), are addressed in this paper. Secondly, several issues in the state-of-art models of the wind farm electrical systems—for the lightning surge analysis—are addressed and discussed. Here, a well-known ElectroMagnetic Transients Program (EMTP) software package is often employed, with all of its benefits and some limitations. Thirdly, the metal-oxide surge arrester energy capability and the issues related to the selection of the surge arrester rated energy—in relation to the direct lightning strikes to wind turbines—is addressed. Finally, some general considerations concerning the overvoltage protection selection for wind farm projects, particularly regarding the installation of the metal-oxide surge arresters, are provided as well.