Wind farm collector system grounding

Providing an adequate and effective grounding system within the design of the wind turbine generators (WTGs) integrated with the overall collection and delivery systems is critical for a variety of reasons. A properly designed system needs to take into consideration the many aspects of normal operation and abnormal operation to be effective and must be given periodic inspection and maintenance, when needed, to retain its effectiveness. Requirements that cover grounding design in North America are derived from many sources. Local practices, codes and standards need to be complied with. Issues can arise by equipment being designed to standards that are foreign to North American markets. Traditionally the major overall grounding scheme subsystems includes WTG grounding, medium-voltage (MV) collection system grounding (both overhead and underground routings), and substation grounding. Each of these elements utilizes very different standards and practices chiefly because of the various voltage levels they respectively operate at.