Harmonic assessment of a multi-megawatt wind farm incorporating a robust and computationally efficient metric to quantify harmonic bursts

Bursts of harmonics are a concern as they contribute to thermal heating of equipment and can trip sensitive devices. The time based index T_maximum is recommended within the latest supplemental guide to IEEE Std. 519-1992 as an effective method to quantify harmonic bursts. However, the practical application of T_maximum yields challenges. To address these challenges a replacement metric is proposed that is (i) more robust to input signal noise, and (ii) offers a computationally efficient implementation when considering large harmonic data sets. Efficacy of the proposed metric is proven through a case study where harmonic emissions from a multi-megawatt wind farm are assessed against steady-state distortion limits.