Protection and Interconnection

of Wind Farms
Dr. Athula Rajapakse
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Manitoba

Typical Layout of a Large Wind Farm

utility system (ex. 115 kV)

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Wind Turbine Generator Assembly

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Collector system voltage: 3 kV

13.8 kV (depending on the size
of generator and transformer)
Generator output voltage: 500 V
3 kV (depending on the size of
generator)

Generator output

excitation

generator
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Sources of Faults in Wind Farms

Inside the Wind Turbine

Tower cable
Transformer faults
Wiring inside the electrical distribution panel
Wind-turbine generator
Excitation system faults

On the Wind Farm

Collector bus cable faults
Step-up transformer
Substation bus structure faults
Feeder faults

External to the Wind Farm

Voltage stability
Reverse power flow

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Aspects of Wind Farm Protection

Wind turbine generator protection

Wind farm substation and collector system
protection
Response to external disturbances

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Wind Farm Protection

Protection topology

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Wind Turbine Generator Protection

Multifunction wind turbine generator protection

systems (ex. GE W650)

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Wind Turbine Generator Protection

Available Protection Functions

50G Ground instantaneous overcurrent relay

51G Ground inverse time overcurrent relay
67G Ground directional overcurrent relay
50P Phase instantaneous overcurrent relay
51P Phase inverse time overcurrent relay
50BF Breaker failure relay
46 Negative sequence overcurrent relay
67 Directional overcurrent relay
50N Neutral instantaneous overcurrent relay
51N Neutral inverse time overcurrent relay
67N Neutral directional overcurrent relay

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Wind Turbine Generator Protection

Protection Functions

50SG - Sensitive ground instantaneous overcurrent relay

51SG Sensitive ground inverse time overcurrent relay
67SG Sensitive ground directional overcurrent relay
32 Directional overpower relay (Reverse power relay)
27 Undervoltage relay
59 Overvoltage relay
60V Voltage unbalance relay
81U Under frequency relay
81O Over frequency relay
59N Neutral point displacement relay (neutral point overvoltage)
27X Auxiliary undervoltage relay
59X Auxiliary overvoltage relay
VTFF Voltage transformer fuse failure

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

Wind Farm Substation Protection

Transmission Line
Line Distance (21)
Line Differential (87)

Transformer

Busbar

Differential (87)
Differential (87)

Collector Feeders
Phase and ground
overcurrent
Instantaneous
overcurrent (50)
Time overcurrent (51)

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Wind Farm Feeder Topologies

Radial feeder

Bifurcated radial feeder

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Wind Farm Feeder Topologies

Feeder-subfeeder

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Wind Farm Feeder Topologies

Looped feeder

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Feeder Ground Faults

Line-Ground fault on the collector feeder

Feeder protection will trip the feeder breaker

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Feeder Ground Faults

Opening of feeder could result in ungrounded

collector system

Overvoltages on the healthy phases

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Feeder Ground Faults - Voltage response

Possible solutions
Design for Ungrounded System Design for Ungrounded System
Increase voltage ratings
Additional engineering and equipment costs

Individual Grounding Transformers per Feeder Individual

Grounding Transformers per Feeder

Additional engineering, equipment costs, footprint

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

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Feeder Ground Faults - Overvoltages

Transfer-Trip Solution
All wind generators
connected to the faulted
feeder need to be removed
Transfer-Trip schemes can
be used for this purpose
Need communication with
the feeder breaker IED

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

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Feeder Blocking for Faults in WTG Unit

Feeder breaker
may be blocked in
case of the
detection of a fault
within a WTG unit
Sensitivity/speed of
feeder-breaker can be
improved
Prevent loss of feeder for
WTG internal faults

Wind Farm Protection/ Athula Rajapakse

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Bus Blocking for Feeder Faults

Transformer
secondary breaker
may be blocked for
fault within a feeder

Sensitivity/speed of busbreaker can be improved

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Low Voltage Ride Through Requirements

Loss of large wind farms (in excess of 100 MW)

can lead to system instability under stressed
conditions
Large wind farms are expected to provide a
supporting role during disturbances

Fault ride through capability

Studies need to be performed to ensure proper

response from wind generator control and
protection systems

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LVRT Requirements

Some utilities require wind farm ride-through down to zero for

the duration of normally cleared (Zone-1) fault
Presently cost of achieving ride-through down to zero voltage
is significant Most utilities require LVRT down to 0.15 pu.

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Reactive Power Requirements

Power factor at PCC

typical requirement: 0.95 (lagging or leading)

Some interconnection regulations request to

provide reactive power compensation even when
the wind generation is not on-line
Reactive power may be places at different places

At the turbine (DFIG / WTG with full converter units)

On the collector system
At the point of interconnection (SVC/STATCOM)
This preferred as reactive power resources can be used for
voltage regulation even when the wind generation is off-line
Control can be coordinated

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References
1.

2.
3.

M.L. Reichard, D. Finney, J.T. Garrity, Windfarm System Windfarm

System Protection Using Peer-to-Peer Communications, 60th
Annual Conference For Protective Relay Engineers, Texas, March
27-29 2007
W650 Wind Generator Protection System, GE Multilin, Feb. 2006.
Wind Farm Integration in British Columbia Planning and
Interconnection Criteria, A report prepared for BCTC by Electric
Systems Consulting, ABB Inc., March 2005.

(Diagrams/Figures from Refs. [1] and [2])

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