Recommendations and Insights on the Performance of Conventional Fault Detection and Classification Methods Applied to Onshore Wind Farm Collectors

This paper evaluates the performance of conventional fault detectors and classifiers when applied to diagnose faults in onshore wind farm collector systems. Two measurement sets are considered for the assessments: 1) a single measurement point on the collector transformers’ primary or 2) multiple measurements on the main collector busbars, assuming the faulty collector busbar is known. For the study, a system with a real-world topology for connecting IBRs to the grid was modeled using the PSCAD software. Several fault scenarios were represented with variations in fault type, resistance, inception angle, and location, along with varying the wind farm’s generation level. The studies provide recommendations on the best-performing conventional fault detection and classification methods when applied in onshore wind farm collector systems, besides sharing insights on the most appropriate measurement points for such tasks.