How did the design office gain support in selecting transformers and limiters for the wind farm cabling project?

A well-known design office, we have been working with for more than 10 years, won a tender for the design of a wind farm cooperating with a 110 kV system. Among other things, the project required the design of transformers and surge protection for the high-voltage cables that connected the farm to the overhead grid.

What was the problem while connecting the wind farm to the electric grid?

The wind farm had a substation that had to be connected to the overhead grid so that it would be possible to distribute power from the farm to the grid, but also to supply the substation itself from the grid during periods of no power production.

It was necessary to design the substation’s cut-in with the selection of transformers with parameters that took into account the issues of both power consumption and distribution. The next challenge was to select surge arresters to protect the high-voltage cable on both sides, which connects the farm’s substation to the cut in the overhead grid. It was also necessary to select arresters that work with the cable shield.

How did we solve the Partner’s problems?

The project office consulted with us on the selection of transformers with appropriate parameters in terms of power consumption and distribution. This is complicated because there is often a need for measurements in protection and billing systems often require measurements in terms of power distribution from the farm to the substation as well as power consumption in the other direction.

The implementation of this project required using additional transformers. At the same time, we also selected surge arresters to protect equipment, taking into account factors such as network parameters and distances between equipment within the substation.

What did the project office gain from our cooperation?

The cable, which connects the wind farm’s substation to a notch in the overhead grid, represents a significant electrical capacity, which caused it to become a source of surges. We selected surge arresters that, mounted on both ends of this cable, allowed safe discharge of the electric charge released from the cable during switching surges. In addition, the surge arresters we proposed protected the power substation equipment from damage caused by lightning strikes.

We conducted our cooperation with this design office, as usual, at the pace expected by the Partner. We completed it with the comprehensive selection of 6 units of combination transformers and 6 units of high-voltage surge arresters with ProCounter F trip counters, as well as 12 surge arresters for protection of return conductors.