Voltage dips at the terminals of wind power installations

This article gives an overview of the kind of voltage dips that can be expected at the terminals of a wind power installation. The overview is based on the study of those dips at the terminals of industrial installations and provides a guideline for the testing of wind power installations against voltage dips. For voltage dips due to faults, a classification into different types is presented Five types appear at the terminals of sensitive equipment and thus have to be included when testing the wind power installation against disturbances coming from the grid. A distinction is made between installations connected at transmission level and those connected at distribution level. For the latter the phase angle jump has to be considered. Dips due to other causes (motor, transformer and capacitor switching) are briefly discussed as well as the voltage recovery after a dip. Finally some thoughts are presented on the way in which voltage tolerance requirements should be part of the design process for wind power installations. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.