2012 International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP), Vienna, Austria

A Development of a Measurement System Using a Rogowski Coil to Observe Sprit Lightning Current Flows Inside and Outside a Wind Turbine Generator System
Tomoki Kawabata
Department of development technology Shoden Co., Ltd. Chiba, Japan kawabatato@sdn.co.jp

Yuta Naito
Department of development technology Shoden Co., Ltd. Chiba, Japan naitoyu@sdn.co.jp

Syunichi Yanagawa
Department of development technology Shoden Co., Ltd. Chiba, Japan yanagawa@sdn.co.jp

Daisuke Natsuno
Department of Alternative energy Toyo Sekkei Co., Ltd. Tokyo, Japan daisuke.natsuno@toyosk.co.jp

Kazuo Yamamoto
Department of electrical system engineering Chubu University Aichi, Japan kyamamoto@mem.iee.or.jp

Keyword: Wind turbine generation system, Rogowski coil, frequency characteristics, current distribution measurement

I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, based on the magnification of usages of renewable energy and smart usage of energy, the demands of large-scale decentralized generating plants such as wind turbine generator systems and photovoltaic power systems is increasing. However, Large-scale wind and photovoltaic power generation facilities are usually installed in locations where few tall structures exist such as suburbs, resultantly, the damages caused by lightning stroke convergence to those facilities are serious problems [1-4]. In particular, in wind turbine generator systems, the occurrence probability of the damages caused by direct lightning strokes becomes higher than that in other power-generation systems because (1) It has rapidly high-structured in recent years, and (2) It has been installed in the place where extremely few tall structures exist such as hilly terrains and areas along sea shores. Many blade damages caused by lightning strokes and troubles of controls and communication facilities are reported [1-3]. The decline of the capacity factor depending on the operation stopping time and the increase of the repair cost became viewed with suspicion. At many wind turbine sites in Japan, in order to research the lightning-stroke properties to the wind turbine, the large

caliber Rogowski coils are installed in the legs of the towers. The measurement systems make it possible to record current waveforms with wide range frequency [1-3]. Moreover, In recent years, Solving the attachment mechanism of a lightning stroke to a wind turbine blade has started using a high-speed video camera. Thus, researches to clarify the relationship between troubles in a wind turbine generator system and lightning characteristics has been carried out. Not only blades but also control and communication facilities inside or in the vicinity of a wind turbine may be damaged when a wind turbine generator system has a lightning stroke. Most of causes of such troubles are over voltages caused by grounding potential rise, the induced voltage from lightning current flowing through path close to the equipments or backflow current to neighborhood facilities. In order to solve those mechanisms, it is necessary to clarify the transient grounding characteristics of wind turbine generator systems [5-6] and split lightning current flows inside and outside wind turbine generator systems. In this paper, in order to measure the split lightning current flows inside and outside wind turbine generator systems, the measurement system using a Rogowski coil which has wide frequency band and is low cost is reported.

II. OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPED SYSTEM AND INSTRUMENTAL EQUIPMENTS FOR TESTS A. Outlines of the Development System The developed measuring system consists of a Rogowski coil part, a integration circuit with a low-frequency amplifier and a low-pass filter, and a recording device. The specifications are shown in TABLE . A Rogowski coil can be made with lower cost than other current sensors like a current transformer. Moreover, since this measuring system is dividable, it can be easily installed to a small and unique shape measuring place. The frequency response characteristic on the specification of the measuring system designed using a circuitanalysis software is wide range as 1Hz - 500 kHz . B. Instrumental Epuipments for Tests The instrumental equipments used for the tests are shown in TABLE . TDS3054C made by Tektronix was used for an oscilloscope. Its band width is DC - 500 MHz The passive probe P6139A made by Tektronix was used for voltage measuring. Its band width and input capacitance are DC - 500 MHz and 8pF respectively. Moreover, in order to compare current measurement results, the current transformer (CT) of Model 2877 made by PEARSON, which has a band width of 300 Hz - 200 MHz, was used. III.
THE PROPERTIES OF THE MEASURERING SYSTEM

TABLE I. Items Sensor

SPECIFICATIONS OF THE MEASURING SYSTEM USING A ROGOWSKI COIL. Specifications Rogowski coil 70 (Division type) 1 Hz500 kHz 30 kA (All of not less than 30 kA current displays it as 30 kA.) 5.0V 300mA (MAX 500mA) -20 C +50 C Battery drive or Commercial power

Coil (Inside diameter) Frequency response Measuring range of current Power supply voltage Consumption current Temperature Power

TABLE II. Equipment Transmitter Power amplifier Oscilloscope Voltage probe Current sensor

MEASURING DEVICES FOR TESTS. Manufacturer Agilent NF CORPORATION Tektronix Tektronix PEARSON Type 33250A HSA4101 TDS3054C P6139A Model 2877 Model 101

A. Response Charactistics of the Rogowski Coil and the Synthetic Instrumental System The response characteristics of only the Rogowski coil, and the synthetic instrumental system which consists of the Rogowski coil, the integration circuit with the low-frequency amplifier and the low-pass filter, and a recording device were measured. Test circuits are shown in Figure 1 and 2. In Figure 1, the integrated value of the voltage appearing on the output terminals of the Rogowski coil and the current measured using the CT are compared. In Figure 2, the current measured using the synthetic instrumental system and that measured using the CT are compared. The above mentioned results are shown in Figure 3 - 6. Figure 3 (a) is an example of an induced voltage appearing between the output-terminals of the Rogowski coil. The deep continuous line shown in Figure 3 (b) shows the integrated values of the induced voltage. The induced voltage and the integrated value are oscillating with the resonance frequency of the Rogowski coil. When the current flowing through the Rogowski coil has frequency components near the resonance frequency (In the case of the Rogowski coil used in this experiments, the resonance frequency is about 700 kHz - 800 kHz), such oscillation appears. In the low-pass filter shown in Figure 2. On the other hand, the low frequency components of

the current flowing through the Rogowski coil makes only small induced voltage on the coil. The small induced voltage is amplified linearly. The pale continuous line in Figure 3(b) shows the measured result using the synthetic instrumentation system. The pale continuous line laps over the broken line which is the measured result using the CT. From those results, the precision of the developed measuring system can be confirmed. In Figure 4-6, currents with different waveforms flow through the Rogowski coil. It became clear that the smaller current components around the resonance frequency of the Rogowski coil is, the smaller oscillation of the output voltage and its integration with the resonance frequency become. Moreover, From the comparisons between the measured results using the synthetic instrumentation system and the CT, the precision of the developed measuring system can be confirmed for several current waveforms. B. Various Fequency Response Caracteristics The test circuit is shown in Figure 7. A sinusoidal wave generated from an oscillator is inputted into a power amplifier, and the amplified sinusoidal current flow through the Rogowski coil. In the low-frequency measurements, the number of turns to the Rogowski coil are increased to amplify the induced voltage on the Rogowski coil. The input -output characteristics is shown in Figure 8. It has checked that

Current transformer

140 voltage [V] 90 40 -10 -60 0 5 10 15 20 time [s] 25 30 35

Oscilloscope Impulse generator

Rogowski coil

Figure 1. Test Circuit for the Time Response Characteristic of a Rogowski Coil

(a) Rogowski Coil Output Voltage

180
Current transformer

150 current [A]

Oscilloscope

120 90 60 30 0 0 5 10 15 20 time [s]

Rogowski current CT current equipment current

Impulse generator

Integration circuit

Recording equipment

Rogowski coil

25

30

35

Figure 2. Test Circuit for the Time Response Characteristic of the Synthetic Instrumentation System

(b) Comparisons Figure 4. Time Response Characteristic 2

200 150 100 50 0 -50 -100 -150 0 5 10 15 20 time [s] 25 30 35

40 30 voltage[V] 20 10 0 -10 0 5 10 15 20 time[s] 25 30 35

voltage [V]

(a) Rogowski Coil Output Voltage

(a) Rogowski Coil Output Voltage

250 current [A] 200 150 100 50 0 0 5 10 15 20 time [s]

Rogowski current CT current equipment current

200

Rogowski current CT current equipment current

current [A]
35

150 100 50 0 0 5 10 15 20 time [s] 25

25

30

30

35

(b) Comparisons Figure 3. Time Response Characteristic 1

(b) Comparisons Figure 5. Time Response Characteristic 3

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 -20 0 5 10 15 20 time [s] 25 30 35

20 Gain[dB] 0 -20 -40 -60 1.0E+03

voltage [V]

1.0E+04

1.0E+05 1.0E+06 Frequency[Hz]

(a) Gain

1.0E+07

(a) Rogowski Coil Output Voltage

900
Rogowski current

200
CT current equipment current

700
current [A]

500 300 100 -100 0 5 10 15

time [s]

Phase[rad]

150 100 50 0 1.0E+03

20

25

30

35

1.0E+04

1.0E+05 1.0E+06 Frequency[Hz]

1.0E+07

(b) Comparisons Figure 6. Time Response Characteristic 4

Rogowski coil

(b) Phase Figure 8. Frequency Response of the Rogowski Coil

Function Generator

Power Amplifier R

10000 impedance [] 1000 100 10 1 1.0E+02 1.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.0E+05 1.0E+06 1.0E+07 frequency[Hz]
(a) Impedance

CT

oscilloscope

Figure 7. Test Circuit to Measure the Frequency Response of a Rogowski Coil

the Rogowski coil can be used to measure until 500 kHz which is the maximum frequency on the specification as shown in Table 1. The low frequency bound which can be measured using the system in Figure 7 is 1 kHz. However, the Rogowski coil developed in this paper is for the measurements of the split current flows inside and outside a wind turbine generator system. On the tower foot of a wind turbine generator system, the large caliber Rogowski coil which can be used for the lightning current measurements with wide frequency domain of 0.1Hz to 1 MHz is installed. On low frequency domain under 1 kHz, we can guess that there is no large differences of the ratio of the split lightning currents and the total lightning current measured by the large caliber Rogowski coil at the bottom of the tower. It means that the split lightning currents under 1 kHz can be estimated from the currents at 1 kHz.

150 100 phase[] 50 0 -50 -100 1.0E+02 1.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.0E+05 1.0E+06 1.0E+07 frequency[Hz]
(b) Phase Figure 9. Impedance Characteristic of the Rogowski Coil

The properties of the Rogowski coil in the high frequency region can be also confirmed from its impedance characteristic. Figure 9 is the measured results between the output-terminals of the Rogowski coil by use of an impedance analyzer. From this result, the Rogowski coil has many resonance points over 500 kHz region. It means the high frequency bound of the Rogowski coil is about 500 kHz.

IV.

THE PROPERTIES OF THE MEASURERMENT SYSTEM

In this paper, the measuring system using a Rogowski coil which has wide frequency band and is low cost is reported to measure the split lightning current flows inside and outside wind turbine generator systems. the measuring system can be used until the high frequency bound of about 500 kHz. From now on, the split lightning current flows are going to be measured at several wind turbine sites using the measuring system.

REFERENCES
[1] NEDO, Wind Turbine Failures and Troubles Investigating Committee Annual Report, (2006) (in Japanese). NEDO, Wind Turbine Failures and Troubles Investigating Committee Annual Report, (2007) (in Japanese). NEDO, Wind Turbine Failures and Troubles Investigating Committee Annual Report, (2008) (in Japanese). NEDO Analyses and Evaluations of Lighting Damages and Its Protection Methods on Photovoltaic Generation systems, (2009-10) (in Japanese). K. Yamamoto, S. Yanagawa, K. Yamabuki, S. Sekioka, S. Yokoyama, Analytical Surveys of Transient and Frequency Dependent Grounding Characteristics of a Wind Turbine Generator System on the Basis of Field Tests, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 25, Issue 4, pp 3034-3043 (2010-10). K. Yamamoto, S. Yanagawa, S. Sekioka and S. Yokoyama, Transient Grounding Characteristics of an Actual Wind Turbine Generator System at a Low Resistivity Site, IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp 21-26 (2010-1).

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