FIELD VISIT REPORT

On
KAYATHAR WIND FARM

Submitted By
N. Senthil Nathan

Kayathar is a panchayat town in Thoothukudi district in the Indian

state of Tamil Nadu. It is situated along National Highway 7 (NH7) between
Tirunelveli and Kovilpatti.. It is one of the windiest regions in southern India.

Location of Kayathar in a map

Field Visit is carried out the wind farm and the Substation at Kayathar,
the trip details are given as report in two sections.

Section I:: Wind Farm Details

Section II: Substation
ubstation Details

SECTION - I
WIND FARM DETAILS

1. INTRODUCTION
Kayathar is one of the best locations for wind turbines. Here large
numbers of wind turbines are in operation. Heavy winds in these regions are due
to Sengottai pass. Kayathar is situated in this pass. Here there is numerous wind
turbines generate electricity and feed in to the grid via Ayyanaruthu electrical
Substation. In Kayathar wind turbines are in various power producing capacities
starting from,

250kW

600kW

1mW

2 mW

A view wind turbines in Kayathar wind farm

250kW Wind Turbine

2mW Wind Turbine

600kW Wind Turbine

2mW Wind Turbine Installation

2. BASICS OPERATION OF WIND TURBINES

A wind turbine is a rotating machine which captures the power from

the wind by means of aerodynamically design blades and converts in to rotating
mechanical power. Mechanical power is taken up at the shaft in the form of a
moment at a certain rotation and is transferred to a machine (such as a generator
or a pump). The entire wind power station thus consists of a wind energy
converter (rotor), a mechanical gear and a generator.

Operations of a wind turbine in a wind farm

3. COMPONENTS OF WIND TURBINES

A grid-connected wind power station consists of a mechanical system

to capture wind and an drive train system to convert the mechanical energy in to
electrical energy and a structure to hold up in the wind. These systems are broadly
classified in detail as follows;

Rotor

Rotor Blades

Hub

Nacelle

Gearbox

Generator

Brake

Yaw Drive

Tower

Electronic Controller

Exploded view of wind turbine components

3.2 Rotor:
The system component of a modern wind energy converter that transforms
the energy contained in the wind into mechanical rotations is referred to as rotor.
It consists of one or several rotor blades and the rotor hub. The rotor blades
extract part of the kinetic energy from the moving air masses according to the lift
principle.

3.1 Rotor Blades:

Blades of the wind turbine have airfoil sections. It captures the energy from
the wind and transfers it power to the hub. Almost all commercial designs have
three bladed rotors. The wind turbine blade is shown in figure below,

A view of 40m blades ready for transportation

3.3 Hub:
The rotor hub connects the rotor blades to the rotor shaft .The hub is the
supporting structure between the blades and the main shaft in the nacelle.

A typical hub
It is also the place where the power of the turbine is controlled physically
pitching the blades.
3.4 Nacelle:
The nacelle cover is the wind turbine housing protects turbine components
from atmospheric weather conditions and it reduces emitted mechanical sound. It
is made up of FRP material.

A typical nacelle is being transported

3.5 Gear Box:

Gear box is an important component in the power trains of a wind turbine.
Speed of a typical wind turbine rotor may be 30 to 50 r/min whereas, the optimum
speeds of generator may be around 1000 to1500 r/min. Hence, gear trains are to
be introduced in the transmission line to manipulate the speed according to the
requirement of the generator. An ideal gear system should be designed to work
smoothly. There are lots of gear wheels in the gearbox. The wheels attached in to
each gear.

Exploded View of a typical planetary gear box

3.6 Generator:
All grids connected wind turbine drive three phase alternating current
generators to convert mechanical energy in to electrical energy. The fixed speed
generator is as shown in fig 7.

A fixed pole Generator

Types of generators:
Synchronous generator
Asynchronous Generator

A synchronous generator or alternator operates at exactly the same

frequency as the network to which it is connects. An asynchronous generator or
induction generator operates at slightly higher frequency than the network. Both
the generators have a non rotating part called the stator and rotating part called
rotor.

Both types of stator are connected to the network and have three phases
winding on a laminated core. They produce magnetic field rotating at constant
speed. Synchronous generator has a field winding through which passes a DC
current: this is the field winding. The field winding creates a constant magnetic
field, which locks in to the rotating filed created by the stator winding. Thus the
rotor always rotates at a constant speed in synchronism with the stator field and
network frequency.
The rotor of an induction generator is quite different .It consists of squirrel
cage of bars, short-circuited at each end. There is no electrical connection to the
rotor, and the rotor currents are induced by the relative motion of the rotor against
the rotating field of the stator. If the rotor speed is exactly equal to the speed of
the rotating field produced by the stator there is no relative motion, no induced
current. Therefore induction generator always operates at a speed is slightly
higher than speed of rotating filed.

3.7 Brake
During the periods of extremely high winds, wind turbines should be
completely stopped for its safety. Similarly, if the power line fails or the generator
is disconnected due to some reason or the other, the wind turbine would rapidly
accelerate. This leads the turbine to run-away condition within a few seconds.

Nearly all wind turbines employ a mechanical brake somewhere on the drive train.
Such a brake is normally included in addition to any aerodynamic brakes. In case
some current design standards require two independent brakes system, one of
which is usually aerodynamic and other of which is on the drive train. In most
case mechanical brake is capable of stopping the machine. In other cases, the
mechanical brake is only used for braking wind turbines

Mechanical Disc brake in operation

3.8 Yaw Drive:

A horizontal axis wind turbine has a yaw system that turns the nacelle
according to the actual wind direction, using a rotary actuator engaging on a gear
ring at the top of the tower. Yaw drive used for rotate the nacelle with respect to
the tower on its slow bearing .Yaw system keeps the turbine facing in the wind

Yaw drive system

3.9 Tower:
Tower is one of the main components of the horizontal axis wind
turbine. It raises turbine up in the air. The main function of the tower of a
horizontal axis converter is to enable wind energy utilization at sufficient heights
above ground, to absorb and securely discharge static and dynamic stress exerted

on the rotor, the power train and the nacelle into the ground. Another key factor
regarding tower dimensions and design is the natural vibration of the towernacelle-rotor overall system in view of the prevention of dangerous resonance,
particularly during rotor startup. Further influencing factors are dimensions and
weight regarding transport requirements and thus available roads, erection
methods, cranes and accessibility of the nacelle as well as long-term properties
such as weathering resistance and material fatigue. Most towers are made of steel
and/or concrete. As far as steel constructions are concerned, besides the lattice
towers usually observed for dated converters, there are also anchored and selfsupporting tubular steel towers in closed, commonly conic design; the latter being
the most common tower type applied nowadays.

Different types of towers

3.10 Electronic Controller:
In one way or another controller is involved in almost all decision-making
processes in the safety systems in a wind turbine. At the same time it supervises
the normal operation of the wind turbine and carries out measurements for
statistical use. The controller is based on the use of a micro computer, specially
designed for industrial use The control program itself is not stored in a hard disk,
but is stored in a microchip. The processor that does the actual calculations is
likewise a microchip. The computer is placed in the control cabinet together with
a lot of other types of electro-technical equipment, contactors, switches, fuses,
etc.,. The many and varied demands of the controller result in a complicated
construction with a large number of different components.

The controller measures the following parameters as analogue

 Voltage on all three phases
 Current on all three phases
 Frequency on one phase
 Temperature inside the nacelle
 Generator temperature
 Gear oil temperature
 Gear bearing temperature
 Wind speed
 The direction of yawing
 Low-speed shaft rotational speed
 High-speed shaft rotational speed
The controller also measures the following parameters as digital Wind direction
 Over-heating of the generator
 Hydraulic pressure level
 Correct valve function
 Vibration level
 Twisting of the power cable
 Emergency brake circuit
 Overheating of small electric motors for the yawing, hydraulic pumps, etc
 Brake-caliper adjustment

SECTION - II
SUB STATION DETAILS

1. INTRODUCTION
The wind power generated from the wind farm are fed in to this substation
and then exported to national grid for respective loads. All the voltages generated
from the wind turbines are in the order of 490/600/690VC respectively are
stepped up in to 11kV /33kV by the step up transformer and conned by the feeders
and terminate at the substation transformer.
At the substation the incoming feeders are stepped up to higher voltages in
the range of 110kV/ 230kV and fed to the National grid and distributed to the
various loads.

Power transmission from a wind farm to the grids

2. TRANSMISSION LINE DETAILS:

TNEB is ACSR 7/3.35 type Transmission lines are used for reducing
cost as well as good transmission efficiency with good mechanical strength.

3. SUB-STATION DETAILS:
The generated electricity from the various wind turbines are connected the power
transformer via 14 feeders in Ayyanaruthu substation.

View of Ayyanaruthu Sub Station with the power transformer

4. MAJOR COMPONENTS OF SUB STATION

The equipment required for a transformer Sub-Station depends upon
the type of Sub-Station, Service requirement and the degree of protection desired.
Ayyanaruthu Sub-Station has the following major equipments:4.1 Bus-Bar:
When a no. of lines operating at the same voltage have to be directly
connected electrically, bus-bar are used, it is made up of copper or aluminum bars
(generally of rectangular X-Section) and operate at constant voltage.
4.2 Insulators:
The insulator serves two purposes. They support the conductor (or
bus bar) and confine the current to the conductor. The most commonly used
material for the manufactures of insulators is porcelain. There are several type of
insulator (i.e. pine type, suspension type etc.) and their use in Sub-Station will
depend upon the service requirement.
4.3 Isolating Switches:
In Sub-Station, it is often desired to disconnect a part of the system
for general maintenance and repairs. This is accomplished by an isolating switch
or isolator. An isolator is essentially a knife Switch and is design to often open a
circuit under no load, in other words, isolator Switches operates only when the
line is connected and carry no load.
.

4.4 Circuit Breaker:

A circuit breaker is a equipment, which can open or close a circuit
under normal as well as fault condition. These circuit breaker breaks for a fault
which can damage other instrument in the station. It is so designed that it can be
operated manually (or by remote control) under normal conditions and
automatically under fault condition. A circuit breaker consists of fixed & moving
contacts, which are touching each other under normal condition i.e. when breaker
is closed. Whenever a fault occurs trip coil gets energized, the moving contacts are
pulled by some mechanism & therefore the circuit is opened or circuit breaks. When
circuit breaks an arc is stack between contacts, the production of arc not only
interrupts the current but generates enormous amount of heat which may cause
damage to the system or the breaker itself. Therefore the main problem in a circuit
breaker is to extinguish the arc within the shortest possible time so that the heat
generated by it may not reach a dangerous value. The medium used for arc
extinction is usually Oil, Air, Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) or vacuum.
4.5 Protective relay:
A protective relay is a device that detects the fault and initiates the
operation of the C.B is to isolate the defective element from the rest of the system.
The relay detects the abnormal condition in the electrical circuit by constantly
measuring the electrical quantities, which are different under normal and fault
condition. The electrical quantities which may change under fault condition are
voltage, current, frequency and phase angle. Having detected the fault, the relay
operates to close the trip circuit of C.B.

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4.6 Instrument Transformers:

The line in Sub-Station operates at high voltage and carries current of
thousands of amperes. The measuring instrument and protective devices are
designed for low voltage (generally 110V) and current (about 5A).Therefore,
they will not work satisfactory if mounted directly on the power lines. This
difficulty is overcome by installing Instrument transformer, on the power lines.
There are two types of instrument transformer.
(i) Current Transformer:
A current transformer is essentially a step-down transformer. It stepsdown the current in a known ratio, the primary of this transformer consist of one or
more turn of thick wire connected in series with the line. The secondary consist of
thick wire connected in series with line having large number of turn of fine wire and
provides for measuring instrument, and relay a current, which is a constant faction
of the current in the line. Current transformers are basically used to take the
readings of the currents entering the substation.
(ii)Voltage Transformer or Potential Transformer:
It is essentially a stepdown transformer and step down the voltage in
known ratio. The primary of these transformers consists of
turn

offline wire connected

a large number of

across the line. The secondary windings consists of

a few turns, provides for measuring instruments, and relay a voltage that is known
fraction of the line voltage.

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CONCLUSION

This filed visit gave me an opportunity to see and experience the real
time wind turbines in operation and came to know how the wind turbine works/
operates. Also the field visit gave me the picture of how power generated from
wind turbines is fed in to grid / connected to load.
The visit helped me to understand the operation of various
equipments in the substation. The protection arrangements and safety measures
are also known. The important electrical parameters to be noted and the essence
of safe operation of equipments and precaution while fault and rectification of the
fault were also clearly understood.

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