Grounding System Design for Wind Power Generation System Considering the Effective Length of Grounding Conductor

Human safety is the most important factor to determine any grounding system, therefore low‐frequency grounding resistance (LFGR) of wind power generation systems should be very low. Lightning protection is another factor for the grounding system design. Grounding conductors (GCs) are used to reduce the LFGR. A long GC however, does not reduce peak voltages for lightning currents with steep‐front waveshapes. Thus, the GC length is an important factor for an effective grounding system. This paper proposes a method for determining the effective length of GC based on traveling wave theory in time domain. Based on this calculation, it describes a grounding system design for wind power generation systems that considers both, the LFGR and the lightning protection. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.