Overvoltage protection and arrester selection for large wind plants

The collector systems of large wind plants require the application of surge arresters to protect the insulation of unit transformers, cables, and substation equipment from transient overvoltages. The application of surge arresters is constrained by maximum operating and temporary overvoltage levels. This paper provides a tutorial description of the process of selecting and applying surge arresters to wind plant medium voltage collector systems, with emphasis on the peculiar properties of this application.