POWERSYS has discussed EMTP^® with Mr. Jair Cassoli, Electrical Engineer at Enercon. Founded in 1984 in Germany, ENERCON is a leader in the design and sale of wind turbines and recognized worldwide for reliability and performance of its direct drive generators, its high manufacturing standards and its long-term service agreements.

To date, ENERCON has installed more than 24,500 wind turbines worldwide, ranging from 500 kW to 7.5 MW, accounting for over 38.6 GW of installed capacity. ENERCON employs over 20,000 persons worldwide and has its head office in Aurich, Germany.
 

Q1 : What is the core business of your company ?

The development and manufacturing of Wind Energy Converters.

Q2: What is the mission of your department?
The development of high accurate and detailed EMT and RMS WEC Models for grid integration studies of WFs.

Q3: How long has your company been using EMTP^®?
Around 5 years.

Q4: What were your initial intentions for using EMTP^®? 
The development of a detailed WEC model for HQ in Canada.

Q5: Has your use of the software evolved since then?
Yes, the model was continuously improved and validated against measurements and new models were developed.

Q6: How do you see yourself using EMTP^® in the future?
Since the control system and electrical components of Enercon WECs has been always enhanced with new features and will be in the future, I have to ensure that EMTP^® WEC models are adapted and validated according to that now and in future.

Q7: What was the EMTP^® impact on your work?
Through the development of WEC models in EMTP^® I could perform electromagnetic simulation studies like TOV and short circuits in order to investigate the behavior of the WF models and their impact on the power system they are connected to. I got a unique experience through that.

Q8: How did your company benefit from using EMTP^®?
In some countries reliable EMTP^® WEC models are part of grid code requirements and play a key role during call for tenders of WECs. 

Q9: Can you describe a specific project in which EMTP^® had a key contribution on study time and accuracy of results?
TOV studies of a big Wind Farm in Canada with different grid scenarios and operation modes of the WECs in order to design surge arrestors and ground breaker transformers.

Q10: Is there anything that EMTP^® allows you to do that you could not do before?
Very accurate simulation of fast electromagnetic transient phenomena’s like TOV.