Transient grounding characteristics of wind turbine with counterpoise

Abstract

Installations of wind turbine generator systems are noteworthy examples of eco-friendly energy generation. Because larger-scale facilities and increased electrical capacity can be realized by increasing the number of turbines, wind energy can be utilized more efficiently than other clean energy sources. However, the number of lightning strikes has increased with the popularization of wind turbine generator systems because of their heights. The grounding potential increase owing to the flow of lightning current into the ground causes damage to equipment installed in the vicinity or inside the wind turbine system. The grounding potential rise depends on the transient characteristics of the grounding systems. Therefore, it is important to clarify these grounding characteristics. In this paper, the experimental results for the transient grounding characteristics of a wind turbine system with a counterpoise connecting it to another wind turbine grounding system are presented. In addition, to verify the effects of the counterpoise, we used the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method.