Wind power plants are becoming increasingly important part of the electricity generation of the world, and this tendency is expected to continue. As a result it’s imperative for the protection system of windfarms to function properly to prevent disturbances on the high voltage transmission and distribution networks and to avoid financial losses of the windfarm operators.
Designing a windfarm protection system presents unique challenges for the protection engineers. For example induction generators are used to generate electricity as opposed to the traditional synchronous generators and these are arranged in special topologies. The collector system relies heavily on cables which can run for several kilometers and may cause serious switching transients. The recently revised national grid codes require fault ride-through capabilites for faults outside the parks. All these conditions make it necessary to properly simulate windfarm behaviour during faults.
Advanced simulation tools are available to study the transient and steady states of a wind power plant. In this thesis I’m going to review the current state of wind power generation in the world, the most important aspects of windfarm protection system design, the network connection requirements in Hungary, and then I’m going to use the ATP-EMTP electromagnetic transient software to create a model of a windfarm which will include the overcurrent protection of the feeder network and the reaction of the windfarm’s protection system to voltage dips during faulty conditions.