Análise das Medidas de Proteção em Redes de Média Tensão de Parques Eólicos frente Descargas Atmosféricas

Abstract

Wind power generation in the national scenario has been growing in the last decades, reaching a promising position among the renewable energy generation sources. Among the possible configurations for the topology of a wind farm electrical system, air insulated installations are a consolidated and cost- effective alternative. In this context, in installations where natural or additional shielding is not common, since in many cases wind farms are installed in geographically remote locations, the concern with atmospheric discharges that can strike the medium voltage overhead networks and cause damage to equipment in the installation, such as the power transformer, becomes imperative. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the proposition of a mitigating measure to increase the operational safety of the wind farm substation equipment. For the evaluation, simulations were performed using the ATPDraw software, with parameters defined for the lightning discharge and reference values for the electrical equipment. The results showed that the mitigating measures applied to the medium voltage overhead network decreased the voltage experienced by the power transformer, increasing its calculated safety margin in relation to its basic insulation level (BIL).