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A Novel Arc-Suppression Method for
Grounding Fault in Wind Farm
Li Jian Non-Member and Zeng Xiangun Member, IEEE, Zhao Zhenfeng , Non-Member
Zhan! Yijie Non-Member
b5IrucI Neutral-point non-effectively grounded system is
used in the wind farm with complex structure, high cost, wide
distribution and higher capacitance current. This paper presents
an arc-suppression method for the neutral non-effective
grounding system-voltage arc-suppression method. A reactor is
directly connected to the fault bus and ground. The voltage of the
reactor is used to suppress the voltage of the fault phase, to make
sure it become much smaller than the amplitude of electric
strength recovery, undermine the arc renewed mechanism, and
remove the arc grounding. Simulation result in the paper verifes
the validity and advantages of the method and it is not affected
by grounding current, eliminating the complex track and
compensation calculation. Arc-suppression method is simple.
Especially suitable for system with high capacity current. such
as cables wind farms.
Acyw0rd5: Capacitance current, Neutral-point, Overvoltage,
Wind farm, Arc-suppression coil, ATP, Grounding arc foult, Arc
medium electric strength recovery, Neutral point ungrounded
system, Reactor
I. INTRODUCTION
At present, neutral-point non-effectively grounded
method is used in the most of the 3-35kV distribution
gird in wind farm in China
[11
. With the rapid development of
the power system, main power wiring great changes have
taken place, the amount of cables lines becomes larger and
larger, the percentage of cable lines in urban distribution grid
becomes higher and higher. Meantime, line-to-ground
capacitive current is also increasingly higher. In the wind farm,
the transmission line is cable line, compared to overhead lines
with the same length, capacitive current of cable lines is 25
times higher, at the range of IO-30A single-phase grounding
current where the single-phase intermittent arc grounding fault
easily happens. As a result, when single-phase arc grounding
fault occurs, the arc in fault point is diffcult to extinguish, and
produces over-voltage which is up to 3.54.76 times higher
than phase voltage, threatening the fagile insulation
equipment and causing damages to electrical equipment and
This work was supported in part by Scientific Research Fund of Hunan
Provincial Education Department 09K067 and 09CYO 11.
Li Jian a graduate student of the School of Electrical & Information
Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology Hunan
Province, 410076, P. R. China (e-mail : woaijuvenfc@163.com)
Zeng Xiangun is with School of Electrical & Information Engineering,
Changsha University of Science and Technology, Hunan Province, 410076, P.
R. China (e-mail : eexjzeng@csust.edu.cn)
v78-1-1Z11-v10-7/10/$Z.001Z010 IEEE
large-scale blackout
[21
. So it is necessary to do research to
eliminate arc over-voltage.
This paper presents an new arc-suppression method for
single-phase grounding arc fault. When single-phase
grounding arc fault occurs in the power system, a reactor is
directly connected to the fault bus and ground. Forming the
loop to suppress the voltage of the fault phase, reduce the fault
current and remove the arc grounding. Furthermore, before
exits, it extends the working time length of reactor (3-
5s ,according to the specifc situation), so as to ensure the
recovery of the arc medium electric strength and clearing
faults.
II. THEORY OF ARC MEDIUM ELECTRIC STRENGTH RECOVERY
Theory of arc medium electric strength recovery is
proposed in 1957, as shown in Figurel. No matter the arc
suppression occurs when it is high frequency or power
frenquency becomes zero, if the recovery voltage peak Upv
determined by the circuit inductance and circuit gradient less
than the amplitude of arc medium electric strength recovery
Uds , grounding arc reignition will not taken place.
Conversely, if the amplitude of arc medium electric strength
recovery less than the amplitude of fault voltages recovery
Urv, arc reignition will taken place, then forming intermittent
arc grounding fault. Experimental results show that 3-35kV
distribution girds which neutral-point ungrounded, the
capacitive current Ic=5-100A, When the recovery voltage
peak were 0.37Uxm(Ux is the Phase Voltage, Uxm is the
peak of the Phase Voltage. The same below)and 0.23Uxm,
grounding arc will not reignited.
O
The threshold
/
Z
Recovery voltage
peak O_,
Medium electric
fault voltages
, _
re_c_overy O
Fig 1 the condition of arc-suppression
Analysis of the theory can be drawn that when single
phase arc grounding fault occurs, if we limit the voltage of
the fault phase to a certain extent, it can remove the arc
grounding. So the voltage arc-suppression method is proposed,
when single-phase grounding arc fault occurs, control the
amplitude of fault voltages recovery less than the amplitude of
arc medium electric strength recovery, grounding arc will not
reignited
III. AN NEW VOLTAGE ARC-SUPPRESSION METHOD
As shown in fgure 2 and fgure 3, By closing switch in
the fault phase, a reactor is directly connected to the fault bus
and ground. The voltage of the reactor is used to suppress the
voltage of the fault phase, to make sure it become much
smaller than the amplitude of electric strength recovery,
undermine the arc renewed mechanism, and remove the arc
grounding. Furthermore, before exits, it extends the working
time length of reactor (3-5s, according to the specifc
situation), so as to ensure the recovery of the arc medium
electric strength and clearing faults. This system will not only
ensure the single-phase grounding arc fault not expanding to
the phase to phase short circuit fault, but also avoiding the
tripping, improving power supply reliability.
'-

J
J
.CICICI

Fig 2 Zero-sequence current circuit diagram afer the reactor
devoting
u

"E
Xc=
O
.

.
:

3

Fig 3 Equivalent circuit diagram
IV. SIMULA nON
The paper builds the 10kV distribution network
simulation model in the EMTP/ A TP sofware, the simulation
chart is shown in fgure4. Substation outgoing line used
equivalent circuit of I model. In the 4 outgoing line,
L 1 ,L2,L4 is the overhead line, L3 is the cable. In order to
carry on the simulation of the single-phase grounding fault
easily, line L4 is divided into two sections. The parameters of
overhead lines are L=I.042mH Ikm,RO =0.270
Ikm,CO=0.0035F/km, the parameters of cables are
L=0.28mH Ikm,RO =0.0750 Ikm,CO=0.43uFlkm, the length
of the four lines are 30 km,lOO km,30 km,20km.
In order to clearing faults reliably in the maximum
operating mode(when a single phase grounding foult occurs,
the capacitance current fowing through the foult point is the
maximum), the reactor's inductance and the capacity should be
designed suitably. the inductance is calculated as follows:
We can see from the above in the lOkV grid the recovery
voltage peak should be <0.23Uxm, and the biggest capacity
current of the system Ic is 100A, taken recovery voltage peak
is 0.22 Uxm, then the voltage of the reactor is
U
L
= O.22Uxm = 1866.5V
The inductance of the reactor is
L==O.042H
wljd
m
Taken inductance of the reactor is L=30mH, Then when
the capacitive current Ijd is 100A, the reactor can suppress the
voltage of the fault phase to:
U __
=
w
L
ljdm
= 1332V = O.
155U xm
Now, the fault-phase voltage is much smaller than the
boundary value of the recovery voltage peak 0.23Uxm, also
much smaller than the amplitude of arc medium electric
strength recovery, undermine the arc renewed mechanism, and
remove the arc grounding.
In the simulation, Os0.025s the gird is working normally,
afer 0.025s grounding fault occurs, the fault resistance is set
to 350. Simulation waveform is shown in fgure 5-8
Fig 4 lOkV Distribution gird simulation diagram
!
sy
!0
0~~~
-
-!0
-!
0.00 0.04 0.08 0.!2 0.!

0.20
(t..el111111.p|4, x-varI) v.X0Z14
Fig 5 The arc voltage waveform of the single-phase grounding
arc fault in the neutral point ungrounded system
!0
/
!00
0
0---
-0
-!00
-

0.00 0.04 0.08 0.!2 0.!

0.20
(t..e111111

p|4; x-var1) c:X0Z14-L4CZ

Fig 6 The fault current waveform of the single-phase
grounding arc fault in the neutral point ungrounded system
1000
___
-500
-2000
-3500
-5000
-6500
- 00

0
-

4
-

0
~
-

0
q- _
-

0
q-
6
-

0
_
0
(Ii|e IJ,Ii111111.pl4; x-var I) v:XX0215
Fig 7 The arc voltage waveform of the single-phase grounding
arc fault in the voltage arc-suppression system

.

_A|
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
~~ ~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~
0

00 0.04 0

0 0

1Z 0

16 _g] 0.Z0
(f||e JrM111111.pl; x-var t) c:XX0214-L4C
Fig 8 The fault current waveform of the single-phase
grounding arc fault in the voltage arc-suppression system
V. CONCLUSION
Through the fgure 7 and fgure 8 simulated by
EMTP/ ATP, A reactor is directly connected to the fault bus
and ground to suppress the voltage of the fault phase can
remove the arc grounding nearly 100%.Also it is not affected
by grounding current, eliminating the complex track and
compensation calculation. Compared with the neutral-point
grounded via arc-suppression coil system, this method is
simple, lower cost. Especially suitable for system with high
capacity current, such as wind farm. This method has great
research value, should be continued deeper study.
VI. REFERENCES
[I] XU Liwei. The thoughts on the singJe phase grounding fault of JOkV
transmitting line in wind power generating field. Ningxia Electric
Power,2009,(1 ): 57-63
[2] Y AO Huannian, CAO Meiyue. Resonance Ground of Electric Power
Systems[M]. Beijing : China Electric Power Press, 2000.
[3] SUN Jianing. ZN05A Intelligent Type Integrated Grounding Protection
Device. Guangdong Power Transmission Technology, 2008, (3): 28-31
[4] WANG Yansong, XIE Fei. Simulation and analysis of single-phase to
ground fault in distribution networks. High Voltage Engineering,
2008,34(1) 123-127.
[5] SHU Hongchun,XIAO Bai.A transient-based study on fault line selection
for single-phase to ground faults on distribution system. Automation of
Electric Power Systems,2002,26 (21)58-61
[6] GU Rongbin ,CAl Xu ,CHEN Haikun ,lIN Zhi j ian ,GAO Wei guo.
Modeling and Simulating of Single-phase Arc Grounding Fault in Non
effective Earthed Networks. Automation of Electric Power
Systems,2009 ,33( 13 )63-67
[7] ELKALASHYNI, LEHTONENM. Modeling and experimental
verification of high impedance arcing fault in medium voltage networks. IEEE
Trans on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, 2007, 14(2):375-383.
VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Li Jian, was bor in 1986.Shandong Province and received his bachelor
degree from Changsha University of Science and Technology, China in 2008
He is now a graduate student at the School of Electrical & Information
Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, China. His
research interest is power system protection and control.
Zeng Xiangun received his bachelor degree from Hunan University in
1993, his M.Sc. degree from Wuhan University in
1996, and Ph.D degree from Huazhong University
of Science & Technology in 2001. He then
worked as post-doctoral fellow in Xuji Relay
Company and the Hongkong Polytechnic
University. He is now a Professor and Dean of the
School of Electrical & Information Engineering,
Changsha University of Science and Technology,
China. His research interest is real-time computer
application in power systems control and
protection.
Zhao zhenfeng, was bor in 1981. he is a graduate student at the School of
Electrical & Information Engineering, Changsha University of Science and
Technology, China. Her research interest is power system protection and
control.
Zhang YiJie was bor in Changsha City , Hunan Province, China, on
September 7, 1985. She received the B.Sc. degree in engineering degree from
the Changsha Uinversity of Science and Technology, Hunan, China, in
2008 ,where he is currently pursuing the M.Tech. degree in electrical
engineering. Her interests include smart grid and power systems protection