ConditionMonitoringofTransformers

Condition Monitoring of Transformers (on photo: distributive tranformer by Gazoogleheimer via Flickr)

Detectingearlysignsofdeterioration
Itispossibletoprovidetransformerswithmeasuringdevicestodetectearlysignsof
degradationinvariouscomponentsandprovidewarningtotheoperatorinordertoavoid
alengthyandexpensiveoutageduetofailure.
Thetechnique,whichcanbeappliedtootherplantaswellastransformers,iscalledcondition
monitoring,astheintentistoprovidetheoperatorwithregularinformationontheconditionof
thetransformer.

Byreviewingthetrendsintheinformationprovided,theoperatorcanmakeabetter
judgementastothefrequencyofmaintenance,anddetectearlysignsof
deteriorationthat,ifignored,wouldleadtoaninternalfaultoccurring.

Suchtechniquesareanenhancementto,butarenotareplacementfor,theprotectionappliedto
atransformer.
Theextenttowhichconditionmonitoringisappliedtotransformersonasystemwilldependon
manyfactors,amongstwhichwillbethepolicyoftheassetowner,thesuitabilityofthedesign
(existingtransformersmayrequiremodificationsinvolvingaperiodoutofservicethismaybe
costlyandnotjustified),theimportanceoftheassettosystemoperation,andthegeneralrecord
ofreliability.
Therefore,itshouldnotbeexpectedthatalltransformerswouldbe,orneedtobe,sofitted.
Atypicalconditionmonitoringsystemforanoilimmersedtransformeriscapableofmonitoringthe
conditionofvarioustransformercomponents(bushings,tank,tapchanger,coolersand
conservators)asshowninTable1below.
Table 1 condition monitoring for transformers

Therecanbesomeoverlapwiththemeasurementsavailablefromadigital/numericalrelay.
Bytheuseofsoftwaretostoreandperformtrendanalysisofthemeasureddata,theoperatorcan
bepresentedwithinformationonthestateofhealthofthetransformer,andalarmsraisedwhen
measuredvaluesexceedappropriatelimits.Thiswillnormallyprovidetheoperatorwithearly
warningofdegradationwithinoneormorecomponentsofthetransformer,enablingmaintenance
tobescheduledtocorrecttheproblempriortofailureoccurring.
Themaintenancecanobviouslybeplannedtosuitsystemconditions,providedtherateof
degradationisnotexcessive.

Asassetownersbecomemoreconsciousofthecostsofanunplannedoutage,and
electricsupplynetworksareutilisedclosertocapacityforlongperiodsoftime,the
usefulnessofthistechniquecanbeexpectedtogrow.

Reference:NetworkProtection&AutomationGuideAreva