Abstract As the distance from the shore of offshore wind farms increases, MMC-HVDC technology is gradually gaining attention in its grid connection schemes. A broadband electromagnetic transient model of offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 800 MW connected to the grid via a flexible direct current transmission system is developed. After three types of grounded short circuit faults occur at different fault positions within the power collection system, the characteristics of overvoltage are obtained and they are analyzed on the basis of considering the low voltage ride-through capability of the direct-drive permanent magnet wind power generator. Combining the two factors of range and amplitude, the results show that the overvoltage phenomenon is the most serious when a two-phase grounded short circuit occurs at the converging busbar, which can be the focus of the study when setting up overvoltage protection.