2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This research aims to integrate technical knowledge into undergraduate and graduate engineering education by providing students with a real-world case study that enhances their learning and their ability to apply technical codes and standard in engineering design and helps them understand renewable energy sources and their operating challenges. The study examines how the impedance of tower footings affects the ability of wind farms (WFs) to handle low voltage ride through (LVRT) events. The impedance of tower footings plays a crucial role in the overall fault impedance during the flashover of transmission-line, which in turn affects the fault current. Additionally, connecting multiple transmission-line towers with overhead ground wires can significantly reduce the effective fault impedance, and hence impacting the overall fault impedance. Further, since most WFs use doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs) which are generally equipped with rotor crowbars to mitigate the effects of fault current on the machine, the design of the crowbar resistance is based on the rotor overcurrent, which is greatly influenced by the fault impedance. Therefore, it is crucial to study the effect of tower footing impedance on the fault current in power system. Further, as the impact of fault impedance on the LVRT performance of WFs has not been sufficiently studied, this study examines and assesses the impact of fault characteristics and grid impedance on the LVRT capabilities of WF systems as power system impedance decreases with the growing integration of wind farms in the grid. Therefore, to choose the best LVRT enhancing method or devices and the best ratings for these devices to help reduce WF installation costs, it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of how tower footing impedance affects fault current and system voltages during various fault types. Finally, the paper provides case studies of grid performance with varying tower footing impedance, which could help students and early career engineers guarantee the cost-effective and dependable integration of renewable energy sources which meets the standard codes.