Grounding design for personal safety of a large scale wind power plant

Abstract

Grounding of electrical power systems has and will always be one of the most essential aspects of any electrical system design. Without a proper, well designed and effective efficient grounding network personal safety is at risk, equipment protection cannot be assured, and proper system operation cannot be maintained. Because of these reasons grounding design has become well researched, with long established standards strictly dictating the construction and integration of such ground networks. However with an ever diversifying power grid generation mix, integration of new technologies has become common. The need for these diverse technologies along with their cultural and societal demand has enabled them to outrun the standards and conceptual knowledge required for their safe construction. One such area exists in the grounding design of large scale Wind Power Plants (WPP). While most generation facilities aim to reduce their landmass to the smallest possible footprint wind power plants require adequate spacing in order to optimize wind quality and power generation with construction costs. This necessitates a generation facility or power plant that can reach up to several square miles. At areas of this size and distribution, established grounding design practices become ineffective and inapplicable while current standards become insufficient due to failing assumptions. This thesis offers an overview of grounding concepts tailored to the unique requirements of Wind Power Plants, a discussion concerning the recommended design methodology for such a network, and real world simulations of these problematic scenarios as a basis of study for WPP grounding. Currently there is very little literature and no standard or guidelines in industry for the specific challenges posed by WPP grounding. Lack of this documentation has led to debate in industry over the topic. It is hoped that this research will provide a basic WPP grounding design methodology and demonstrate the need for the further creation of a standard or guide.