Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering

ISSN: (Print) 2234-8972 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjee20

Losses Prediction in the Distribution Transformer

Using Hierarchy Neural Networks

Vichai Saelee, Chirasak Sinsukudomchai & Prapapan Khluabwannarat

To cite this article: Vichai Saelee, Chirasak Sinsukudomchai & Prapapan Khluabwannarat (2012)
Losses Prediction in the Distribution Transformer Using Hierarchy Neural Networks, Journal of
International Council on Electrical Engineering, 2:4, 384-390, DOI: 10.5370/JICEE.2012.2.4.384

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.5370/JICEE.2012.2.4.384

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384 Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering Vol. 2, No. 4, pp.384~390, 2012
http://dx.doi.org/10.5370/JICEE.2012.2.4.384

Losses Prediction in the Distribution Transformer Using

Hierarchy Neural Networks

Vichai Saelee† , Chirasak Sinsukudomchai* and Prapapan Khluabwannarat*

Abstract – This study presents Hierarchy Neural Networks (HNN) for losses prediction in 3-phase
distribution transformer sized 100 kVA 22kV/400-230V.The transformer parameters as the follows: core
loss, copper loss and windings resistance at the several temperature levels are collected from the
transformer testing process in the factory. These parameters are used as training sets for the HNN. The
primary and secondary winding resistances and varied temperature levels are applied as inputs of the
HNN in order to obtain the transformer losses as the HNN output. The testing results show that HNN can
provide the power losses with accurate in some degree when compared with the measuring results.

Keywords: 3-Phase distribution transformer, Electrical losses, Hierarchy neural networks

1. Introduction The paper is organized as the follows: Section II, the

Currently, electrical loss is still a major concern for the
distribution transformer manufactories because it represents
both technical and financial damages. It is also one of the
most important parameters of transformer quality therefore
an accurate estimation of electrical loss is an essential task.
The necessary of reduction for electrical loss in the power
system is related to the increasing demand for reliable and
flexible power distribution systems to maintain network
operation feasible in both normal and overload conditions.
In transformer designing, a crucial requirement is to
guarantee that the power dissipated in the transformers
stays within an acceptable level. In fact the total losses in a
transformer have been calculated by combination of core
loss and copper loss. Electrical loss analysis related to
copper loss which depends on several parameters such as
voltage, current, resistance, temperature, load and copper
quality. It is difficult to consider all these factors to model
the thermal effect in transformers because of load changing
in the electrical system. Souza [1] employed an Artificial
Neural Network (ANN) to overcome this problem.
However, their work was applied to the single-phase
transformer and the model required several parameters as
inputs for the ANN. In this study presents an alternative
method with a few input parameters for electrical loss
estimation that applied to the three-phase distribution
transformers at rated 100kVA, 22kV, 400/230V, Dyn11.
electrical losses and the relate factors are described. Section
III, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is brief introduced
then the Neural Network approach is explained in Section IV.
In Section V, simulations and experiments are demonstrated.
Finally in Section VI, the conclusions and discussions
regarding the proposed technique are reported.
2. Electrical Losses
Transformer efficiency can be improved by reducing
electrical losses (PT) which are composed of core loss
(Pcore) copper loss (PCU) and stray loss (PSL) as in (1):
PT = PCore+PCU (1)
2.1 Core loss
The core loss is defined as the power absorbed by the
transformer when it is submitted to a voltage and frequency,
being the secondary circuit in open (no load) that known as
open circuit test. The open circuit test for 3-phase
transformer is shown in Fig. 1. The core loss (Pcore) is
composed of hysteresis loss (PH) and the eddy-current
losses (PE):
PCore = PH +PE (2)

† Corresponding Author: Department of Electrical Engineering South
East Asia University, Thailand (vichai@sau.ac.th)
* Department of Electrical Engineering South East Asia University,
Thailand
Received: August 22, 2012; Accepted: September 15, 2012
The hysteresis loss is due to the fact that the repeated
changes of the direction of the flux in the iron-core require
energy which is dissipated as heat and it is calculated from:
 Vichai Saelee, Chirasak Sinsukudomchai and Prapapan Khluabwannarat
PH = Ks.B1.6.f (3)
where PH are losses caused for hysteresis, Ks is the
coefficients of the combined material in the iron-core, B is
the maximum of magnetic flux density and f is the
frequency.
The eddy-current loss is due to the fact that circuiting
currents are induced in the iron-core because of the
changing flux and these currents generated an |I|2 R loss in
the iron-core. The eddy-current (or Foucault current) loss
can be calculated by the expression:
PE = Ke.f.2 .B2.d 2.10-3 (4)
where PE are losses caused for eddy current, Ke is a
constant of eddy current, f is the frequency, B is the
maximum of magnetic flux density and d is the thickness of
the core lamination.
Fig. 1. Open circuit test for three-phase transformer.
Result of open circuit test for core loss of 100 -
Transformer is showed in Fig. 2
Fig. 2. The Core loss from open circuit test.
2.2 Copper loss
Copper loss is the loss in a conductor depends upon its
385
resistance and the square of the current it carries. The
copper loss is defined as the power absorbed by the
transformer when it is submitted to a much lower voltage
than normal and frequency, being the circuit secondary in
short which known as short-circuit test. Fig. 3 illustrates the
short-circuit test for 3-phase transformer. The copper loss
(PCU) for 3-phases transformer is given by:
PCU = 3((IHV.)2 .RHV +(ILV)2.RLV) (5)
where IHV is the primary current (higher-voltage side),
RHV is the primary resistance, ILV is the secondary current
(lower voltage side) and RLV is the secondary resistance.
Fig. 3. Short-circuit test for three-phase transformer.
Result of Short Circuit Test for cupper loss of 100 -
Transformer is showed in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.The Cupper loss from short circuit test.
2.3 Stray loss
The result from the comparison of Copper loss from
short circuit test and the calculation Copper loss from
equation (5), by adjusting the resistance at high voltage
(RHV) from equation (6),(7) and the resistance at low
voltage (RLV) from equation (8),(9) and adjusting resistance
according to ambient temperature of each short circuit
386 Losses prediction in the distribution transformer using Hierarchy Neural Networks

test from equation (10) , so the result is in Fig. 5 R AB + RBC + RCA

RWB = (7)
3

Also the resistance of each secondary winding per phase

(Rsec/phase) is given as:

1
R LV = Rsec / phase = RWB (8)
2

Rab + Rbc + Rca

Fig. 5. The Cupper loss from short circuit test and calculation.
2.4 Winding Resistances
RWB = (9)
3
where RWB is the measured resistance obtain from
Wheatstone bridge circuit.
The result of measure the resistance at high voltage and
the resistance at low voltage from Wheatstone bridge (RWB)
according to Fig. 7, 8 from 100 tested -Transformer

50.1
49.9
49.7
49.5
49.3
49.1
48.9
48.7
48.5
a) Primary Winding Resistance 48.3
48.1
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100

Fig. 7. resistance at high voltage from Wheatstone bridge

according to ambient temp.

18.5
18.4
18.3
18.2
18.1
18.0
17.9
b) Secondary Winding Resistance 17.8
17.7
17.6
17.5
Fig. 6. Three-phase transformer winding resistance 17.4

Measuring. 1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100

Winding resistances of the 3-phase transformer are

provided by measuring using Wheatstone bridge circuit as
shown in Fig. 6. In this study, the three primary windings
are connected internally in delta (Δ) and the secondary
windings are connected in wye (Υ). The resistance of each
primary winding per phase (Rpri/phase) is
3 normal range of operation [2], [3]. Therefore it is feasible to
RHV = R pri / phase = RWB
2
Fig. 8. resistance at low voltage from Wheatstone bridge
according to ambient temp.
As the winding resistance varies with temperature at the
time of measuring and the variation of resistance of metallic
conductors with temperature is practically linear over the
(6) define the winding resistance at the different temperatures
as in (10):
 Vichai Saelee, Chirasak Sinsukudomchai and Prapapan Khluabwannarat 387

⎛ 235 + θ r ⎞ interconnected [5].

R r = R a ⎜⎜ ⎟
⎟ (10)
⎝ 235 + θ a ⎠

where Rr is the winding resistance at the required

temperature (θr), Ra is the winding resistance at the ambient
temperature (θa) when making a measurement and 235 is
the constant temperature in degrees Celsius for annealed
copper of 100% conductivity [2].

3. Artificial Neural Network

An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a computational

Fig. 9. A feed-forward network.
structure inspired by the study of biological neural network
processing. ANN is a dynamic system which consists of
highly interconnected and parallel nonlinear processing
4. The Neural Network Approach
elements or units or nodes that shows extreme efficiency in
computation. ANN can also be considered to be a flexible
According to the work by Souza [1], they indicated the
mathematical structure which is capable of identifying
total transformer loss (PT) using 6 variables as the follows
complex nonlinear relationships between input and output
the temperature in degree Celsius (T), the resistances of the
data sets. For these reasons ANN models have been found
high and low voltage winding (RHV and RLV), the core and
to be useful and efficient when applied to problems for
copper losses (Pcore and PCU) and the magnetizing current
which the characteristics of the process are difficult to
(IM). These variables were set as inputs and the total loss
describe using mathematical equations [3].
(PT) of the transformer for the output (training target) of the
The merits of using ANN for the electrical losses
MLP.
analysis are listed as the followings: 1) the ability of
Unlike the work proposed by Souza, four variables,
learning and therefore generalization, 2) the facility of
temperatures due to the effect of the transformer loss and
implementation in hardware, and 3) the capacity of
the High volt wheatstone bridge resistance (RWBH) and low
mapping complex systems without necessity of knowing
volt wheatstone bridge resistance (RWBL), are employed for
the eventual mathematical models associated with them.
the total transformer loss (PT) identifying. The MLP with
In our application, we intend to map the relationship
two neurons at the input layer and one neuron at the output
along with the electrical losses in the transformers, related
layer was implemented as shown in Fig. 10 As in Fig. 11 -
to the variables which indicate the features to loss process.
12, the high volt wheatstone bridge resistance (RWBH) and
Thus the use of a feed-forward multi-layer perceptron
low volt wheatstone bridge resistance (RWBL), are
(MLP) with an error back-propagation learning algorithm is
determined with Rr eq (10) and measurement values from
therefore deemed to be suitable for our application. The
100 of 100kVA 3 phase transformer at five different values
MLP architecture is illustrated in Fig. 9. It consists of (i) an
of temperature: 28°C,29°C,30°C,31°C, and 32°C
input layer with nodes representing input variables to the
problem, (ii) an output layer with nodes representing the
dependent variables, and (iii) one or more hidden layers
containing nodes to help capture the non - linear function.
Using supervised learning with the error-correction learning
rule (ECL), these networks can learn the mapping from one
data space to another using examples. The term back-
propagation refers to the way the error computed at the
output side is propagated backward from the output layer,
to the hidden layer, and finally to the input layer. In the
MLP, the data are fed forward into the network without
feedback. The neurons in the MLP can be fully or partially Fig. 10. MLP architecture.
388 Losses prediction in the distribution transformer using Hierarchy Neural Networks

49.8 18.60 18.60

31 oC
49.6
Max 18.5 m
49.4 49.6
18.40 18.40
49.2 49.4

Resistance (m )
49.0 49.2 18.20 18.20
48.8 49.0
18.00 18.00
48.6 48.8
48.4 48.6 17.80 17.80
48.2 48.4
48.0 48.2
17.60 Min 17.7 m 17.60

47.8 48.0 17.40 17.40

1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100 1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100 1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100 1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100
Transformer (Unit)

(a) RWBH with 48.4Ω -49.4 Ω (b) RWBH with 48.6Ω -49.6Ω (d) RWBH with 17.7Ω - 18.5Ω (e) RWBH with 17.8Ω -18.5Ω

50.0 Fig. 12. The low volt wheatstone bridg resistance ( RWBL).
49.8
49.6 In this application, we intend to use the trained MLP as a
Resistance ( )

49.4
classifier that is used to identify the address where the set of
49.2
49.0
data are kept in the look-up table. Therefore, not only the
48.8 estimate total loss (PT) is given but also the related
48.6 variables: the core loss (Pcore) and copper loss (PCU) The
48.4
kept data in the look-up table were collected from 2
48.2
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100
distribution transformer manufactories in Thailand. The
average value of each variable from the 100 data sets from
(c) RWBH with 48.8Ω - 49.8Ω the testing of 100 transformers is used as the output of the
look-up table. Therefore, all of the values at the same
50.2
50.0
50.4
50.2
address of the look-up table are obtained when the output
that functions as an index is given. The example of the
49.8 50.0
49.6 49.8
49.4 49.6
49.2
49.0
49.4
49.2
look-up table is shown in Table 1.
48.8
48.6
49.0
48.8 The Levenberg-Marquardt [6] is employed as the training
algorithm because it provides stable training with small
48.4 48.6
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100 1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100

training rates. The MLP with log-sigmoid transfer function

(d) RWBH with 48.9Ω - 49.9Ω (e)RWBH with 49.1Ω -50.1Ω in the hidden layer, linear transfer function in the output
layer and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is employed
Fig. 11. The high volt wheatstone bridg resistance ( RWBH). in the ANN. Firstly, the MLP with is trained using the
number of the high volt wheatstone bridge resistance (RWBH ,
18.4 18.4 low volt wheatstone bridge resistance (RWBL), and the
temperature (T1,T2) sets are fed into the MLP, which has 2
18.2 18.2

18.0 18.0

17.8 17.8
input nodes as in Fig. 5. The MLP then evolves itself by
17.6 17.6

17.4 17.4 correctly weighting the nodes in the hidden layer, which has
17.2
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100
17.2
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100
10 nodes, to achieve the desired output (1 output node) for
the given input. The 2- output from RWBH,T1 and RWBL,T2
(a) RWBH with 17.5Ω -18.3 Ω (b) RWBH with 17.6Ω -18.3Ω
function are fed to the last MLP , the result is PT output as
in Fig. 13.
18.6

18.4

18.2
5. Experimental Results
18.0

17.8 The experiment is carried out on the trained MLP

17.6 simulation in order to evaluate the proposed method, the
17.4 test data sets that measured from three-phase distribution
17.2 transformers with the rates of 100 kVA, 22kV, 400/230V,
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100
Dyn11 were used to compare the results. As the results
(c) RWBH with 17.7Ω - 18.4Ω listed in Fig. 14 to Fig. 18, it shows that the proposed
technique obtains outcomes close to measured values. The
percent of error is acceptable for the applications.
 Vichai Saelee, Chirasak Sinsukudomchai and Prapapan Khluabwannarat 389

Table 1. Look-up table

O u tp u t PT PC U. Pc o r .e T em p
In d ex (W ) (W ) (W ) (o C )
1 1 4 6 5 .8 2 1 2 2 6 .4 7 2 3 9 .3 5

303 1 4 9 0 .6 6 1 2 5 1 .3 1 2 3 9 .3 5 28
605 1 5 1 5 .4 1 1 2 7 6 .0 6 2 3 9 .3 5
606 1 4 6 7 .0 8 1 2 2 7 .7 3 2 3 9 .3 5
29
1210 1 5 1 6 .5 2 1 2 7 7 .1 7 2 3 9 .3 5 Fig. 15. Error rate (%) of the electrical losses index 606-1210.
1211 1 4 6 8 .3 2 1 2 2 8 .9 7 2 3 9 .3 5
30
1815 1 5 1 7 .6 3 1 2 7 8 .2 8 2 3 9 .3 5
1816 1 4 6 9 .5 6 1 2 3 0 .2 1 2 3 9 .3 5
31
2420 1 5 1 8 .7 3 1 2 7 9 .3 8 2 3 9 .3 5
2421 1 4 7 0 .7 9 1 2 3 1 .4 4 2 3 9 .3 5
32
3025 1 5 1 9 .8 2 1 2 8 0 .4 7 2 3 9 .3 5

Fig. 16. Error rate (%) of the electrical losses index 1211-1815.

Training Epochs=96 Epochs

Error

100

10-2

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Training Epochs
Fig. 17. Error rate (%) of the electrical losses index 1816-2420.

Fig. 13. Performance of the MLP training process.

Fig. 18. Error rate (%) of the electrical losses index 2421-3025.

Fig. 14. Error rate (%) of the electrical losses index 1-605.
6. Conclusion and Discussions

In this study, the alternative technique of using ANN for

390 Losses prediction in the distribution transformer using Hierarchy Neural Networks

analysis of electrical losses has been presented. The ANN
was employed as the classifier which is able to map the
relationship between the electrical losses in transformers
relation to the several parameters that indicates the feature
to loss process. An advantage of using ANN as the classifier
is the trained ANN can be applied to the different type of
transformer by changing the data in the look-up table.
From the training process, it can be seen that the
increasing of training data sets is possible, so that the
resolution of the parameters such as temperature, core
losses and copper losses can also increase. Therefore, the
accuracy of the technique can be improved. Besides, the
time consuming for transformer testing in the laboratory
can also be reduced due to less parameters are required for
the test.
And also this wheatstone bridge resistance measurement
can report the total loss of transformer at 75o C ,and it is
very useful for designing 3 phase transformer system .
Acknowledgements
[6] M. T. Hagan, “Training Feedforward Networks with
Marquardt Algorithm,” IEEE Trans. on Neural Nett-
works, vol.6, pp .989-993, 1994.
Prapapan Khluabwannarat is an
Assistant Professor with the Depart-
ment of Electrical Engineering, South-
East Asia University. Her research in-
terests are in power quality, power
system method, high voltage, artificial-
intelligence-applied and electrical power
system.
Chirasak Sinsukudomchai is an As-
sistant Professor with the Department
of Electrical Engineering, South-East
Asia University. His research artificial -
intelligence-applied, electrical drives
and solar energy.

The authors would like to thank the Phongpimarn

Electric Company Ltd. and T. D. Transformer Company
Ltd., Thailand in collecting industrial measurement is Vichai Saelee is an Assistant Professor
gratefully acknowledged with the Department of Electrical
Engineering, South-East Asia Univer-
sity. His research artificial-intelligence-
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