Transformers are a crucial — and expensive — part of wind farm infrastructure, boosting the low-voltage output from turbine generators to the higher voltage required by the grid. But too often, they fail prematurely. 

That’s because standard transformers aren’t designed to handle spikes in high-frequency energy that are common in wind farms, where vacuum circuit breakers and switching devices often create transient voltages. As a result, they can break down the transformer’s insulation,…