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WINDFARM EARTHING I Cotton
The Manchester Centre for Electrical Energy, Ferranti Building, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester, M60 IQD

1. INTRODUCTION A windfarm earthing system is normally large when compared to an earthing system typically used in a transmission or distribution substation. The performance of large earthing systems subject to an injection of power system frequency or transient current can differ to the response expected from a smaller system. Typical methods used to design the earthing system of a substation may not be applicable for use on a windfarm. Any earthing system must be designed to meet a number of requirements. Ideally, an earthing system should Ensure that living beings in the vicinity of earthing systems are not exposed to unsafe potentials under steady state or fault conditions (lightninglswitching surges and power system phase to earth faults) Retain system voltages within reasonable limits under fault conditions and ensure that insulation breakdown voltages are not exceeded Provide a sufficiently low impedance to facilitate the operation of electrical protection Some of the factors that have to he accounted for when designing an earthing system to satisfy all of the above requirements include the windfarm soil resistivity, the power system earth fault level at each wind turbine, the operating speed of the power system protection and the level of lightning protection required. A number of these are discussed in this paper.

The earthing system impedance can he defined as that which would he measured between the earthing system and an electrode of zero impedance placed at a remote point. This remote point which is at zero potential is often referred to as remote earth. It follows that the earthing system impedance determines the potential rise of the earthing system when current (DC, 50i6OI-Iz AC or surge) is injected into it. As a high vise in earth potential poses a risk to living beings and equipment it is desirable to keep the impedance of an earthing system to a low value. Previously, empirical formulae that describe the resistance of a simple earthing systems have been used in the design of most earthing systems (c.g. distribution system substations). Windfarm earthing systems, owing to their extensive nature, cannot be designed using these formulae as the inductive content of the earthing system impedance is neglected. A major part of any windfarm earthing system are long earth electrodes (in the form of insulated power cable sheaths or harc earth electrodes) A typical method of modelling these is described below.
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2. BASIC EARTHING SYSTEM PRINCIPLES

An earthing system is normally consmcted by placing metallic elements into the ground. This connection has, like any other electrical connection, an impedance associated with it. The resistivity of the soil, the amount of electrode buried and its geometrical layout are all factors in determining the magnitude of this impedance.
High Voltage Engineering Symposium, 22-21 August 1999 Conference Publication No. 461, Q IEE, 1999

Figure 1: Diagram showing application of a transmission line type model to an earthing conductor buried at the soil surface
A highly simplified model of an earthing conductor is similar to a transmission line model. It is produced by splitting the earthing conductor into small parts and representing each part as a series and shunt impedance. Such a model is shown in Figure 1. The two series elements represent the impedance of the conductor itself in terms of a resistance and an inductance. The two shunt dements meanwhile

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represent the connection between the conductor and the soil in terms of a conductance and a capacitance (the impedance of the shunt connected would be very high for a power cable sheath insulated with a material such as PVC). Normally the performance of the earth electrode is largely determined by the soil resistivity which is in some manner proportional to the value of the shunt n resistor shown i Figure I. The series impedance must, however, be considered for long electrodes or for those energised by transient currents with a large high frequency content. In these cases an increased proportion of the injected current will flow out of the beginning of the earth electrode and the full electrode length will not be effective. protection earthing system, while analysed separately, normally use the same earth electrodes.

4.

SOIL RESISTIVITY MEASUREMENTS

On a site so geographically distributed as a windfarm, the soil resistivity can vary widely. When designing the lightning protection system earth tcimination it is desirable to takc soil resistivity measurements at the location of each proposed wind turbine. The lightning protection system earth termination can then be individually designed at each location. The soil resistivily that should be used to analyse the performance of the power system earthing system is not clear as it may v a v over the whole site. In this case, one possible method is to average the results of the soil resistivity tests and use a site-wide approach.

3.

WINDFARM EARTHING SYSTEM

A windfarm earthing system will normally be designed with two functions in mind. Firstly, the performance during a power system fault must be taken into account. Secondly, the performance as part of a lightning protection system must be accounted for. The earthing system design will normally start with the examination of the lightuing protection system requirements. IEC 61024 [ l ] states that a lightning protection system earth termination of a given dimension must be provided at each wind turbine. Normally this would take the form of a ring electrode around each wind turbine foundation. This ring electrode must be of a minimum dimension that is dependent on the local soil resistivity and the level of lightning protection required. If the ring electrode is not of sufficient radius to fulfil the requirements of IEC 61024 then additional vertical rods or horizontal electrodes must be provided. The ring electrode at the wind turbine will also act as part of the much larger power system earthing arrangements. Power cables running between wind turbines will often carry an earthed cable sheath. These should be used to interconnect the individual earthing systems at each wind turbine. As simulations detailed later in this paper will show, it is also highly desirable to bury bare earth electrode in the power cable trench and link this to turbine bases. Particularly important is the need to realise that the power system earthing system and the lightning

5. EXAMPLE STUDY
The example described is based on a windfarm equipped with ten 1.5MW wind turbines. The turbines are arranged in an L with the substation being placed at the end of the turbine chain. Each wind turbine is separated by a distance of 300m. The substation is 500m from the nearest wind turbine and has dimensions of 30m x 20m. The radius of the wind turbine foundations is 6.5m. The power cable used in the windfarm has an earthed metallic sheath with a thickness of 2 . 5 m and an outer radius of 5cm. There is a PVC covering over this sheath. The windfarm is sited in an area with a uniform soil resistivity of 500nm (it should be noted that a uniform soil resistivity is unrealistic io practice). The electrical layout of the windfarm is shown in Figure 4. The windfarm is connected to the distribution system via a transformer which has a solidly earthed star point. A cablc system then connects each wind turbine to the substation. The wind turbine transformers are earthed at the star point of the low voltage winding. The first consideration in the windfarm earthing system design is the earthing system local to each wind turbine. Assuming that this takes the form of a ring electrode around the turbine foundation, an electrode radius of 6.5m would result. For level I

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lightning protection according to IEC 61024, a minimum ring electrode radius of 5m is required when it is located in a 500nm soil. The 6.5m radius ring electrode therefore satisfies the requirements of IEC 61024.
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The percentage of fault current flowing into the ground in each case and the resulting maximum rise in earth potential is shown in Table 1. The results show that the addition of extra earthing electrodes only slightly reduces the proportion of the fault current that flows into the ground and the maximum rise in earth potential.

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Table I: Comparison of earthing system performance when additional eaith electrodes are installed I Perccntagc of current I Maximum rise ground in earth potential

Figure 3: Example windfarm layout

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Electrodes Figurc 5 and Figure 6 are plots of the earth potential around the earthing system. The view is the same as that given in Figure 3 apart from an elongated x-axis. The light areas in the figures indicate areas of high earth potential and hence high leakage current idout of the earthing system electrodes. It is interesting the addition of an extra 3.2km of earth electrode does not significantly reduce the maximum rise in earth potential. The impedance to remote earth of the two networks, as observed at WTIO, when subject to 5OHz fault current indicates why this may be the case. The impedance of the earthing system that uses power cables only is 0.930 @ 29". When the additional earth electrodes are added, the impedance becomes 0.88n @ 33'. The addition of the cxtra earth electrode has not reduced the earthing system impedance substantially. The series resistance and inductance of the electrodes have prevented them being utilised to their full potential.

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Figure 4: Typical windfarm electrical layout

Once the lightning protection earthing system is confirmed as being sufficient, it is necessary to consider what will happen during a power system fault. Should a fault develop on the high voltagc distribution system running around the windfann, fault current will flow from the point of fault back to the substation transformer stilr point. While a large proportion of the cuirent will flow back through the windfann cable system, a proportion will flow through the ground. When the currcnt enters the ground it will raise the local earth potential. This rise in local earth potential could be unsafe if it is not controlled to an acceptable level. It is possible to model the windfann shown in Figure 3 and illustrate the performance of the earthing system during a power system fault. A 50Hz current of lOOOA is injected into the base of WTlO (this magnitude fault current could be expected when a neutral earthing resistor is placed at the star point of the wind turbine hansfonner). The same current is removed from lhe system at the substation. Two designs of earthing system can be contrasted. The second design is different from the first in that exha earthing electrodes run betwecn the wind turbines and between the final wind turbinc and substation.

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Figure 5: Earth potential around an earthing system using power cables only

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Although these results would suggest that the use of extra earth electrodes is not particularly desirable, another study on a different windfaim layout indicated that the maximum earth potential would he reduced by 20% if extra earth electrodes were provided. Studies must be made on an individual basis and what may be true for one windfarm may not be true for another. The relatively large inductive component of the earthing system impedance shows why DC earthing system resistance measurement techniques should not be used on a site such as a windfarm. If the resistance of the windfarm earthing system was measured and used in determining the maximum rise in earth potential during a phase to earth fault, a hazard to human safety may occur as the earth potential rise would be underestimated. Following the examination of the power system performance of the earthing system it is of interest to observe the response when lightning current is injected into turbine 10. The shape of the lightning current waveform injected into the earthing system is shown in Figure 6. The resulting earth potential rise at turbine 10 for different earthing system designs is shown in Figure 7. Figure 7 shows three curves (two of which overlap). The first curve shows the earth potential rise expected when lightning current is injected into the earthing system around wind turbine 10 only. No other part of the windfarm earthing system is connected. The other two (overlapping) curves show the response when the additional turbine bases are connected via the power cable sheaths and the power cables sheathsibare electrodes. All curves show approximately the same peak overvoltage but the voltage decreases much more quickly in the case where the whole windfarm is considered. The results show that only the earthing system in thc immediate locality of the lightning strike is important when determining the maximum rise in earth potential.

Figure 6: Current waveform used in lightuing strike simulations

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Figure 7 Earth potential rise at turbinc 10 duri : lightning strike

The use of extra bare earthing electrode will, although not discussed here, reduce transferred overvoltages between the wind turbines. For windfarms using SCADA systems constructed with metallic cable it is particularly important to mn hare earth electrode in the cable treuch with the SCADA cable. Experience has shown that if this is not done, severc damage to the control system of numerous wind turbines can occur.
6.

SUMMARY

This work has described the performance of windfarm earthing systems under both power system frequency and lightning current energisation. It is clear that the impedance and not the resistance of the windfarm earthing system is important. Linking wind turbines with hare earthing electrodes can normally be considered beneficial. 7. REFERENCES [l] IEC 61024 'Protection of structures against lightning'
Ths author cant be contacted by entail, inn.catton~umirt.ne.aL