A review on electrical machines insulation aging and its relation to the power electronics arrangements with emphasis on wind turbine generators

This paper is a review of work performed on a subject that is relatively novel, that of wind generators in conjunction with power electronics arrangements. It is known that power electronics arrangements may give rise to unwanted spikes that may stress unnecessarily high the insulating systems of motors and generators. The influence of various waveforms of different rise times on the insulating system's lifetime is investigated as well as the influence on the PD activity. The present paper offers also some proposals for future research.