H2scan TM Catalog 2025 - Flipbook - Page 30
There are many online monitoring choices available that vary from large
monitoring solutions to less complex, compact solutions
3. Strategies and technologies to manage
transformer 昀氀eets
Now that transformer lead times have extended from months
to years and prices have doubled or tripled, what are some
strategies being deployed by asset managers to contend with
increasing demand and reduced supply? One strategy many like
is the “Do Nothing” strategy. In other words, let the transformers
hum along with minimal to no maintenance and hope for the
best. For many small transformer classes, that’s exactly what
most utilities do. If the transformer fails, they’ll replace it. That
strategy works well when there is a su昀케cient supply of units on
hand and if standard transformers are easy to 昀椀nd in distribution
transformer ranges. Unfortunately, supplies are dwindling.
The next strategy most asset managers deploy on larger
transformers is to take periodic 昀氀uid samples and attempt to
identify issues prior to failure. Everyone prefers to change out
transformers on a scheduled basis rather than in an emergency.
This strategy works well if faults are slow to progress and there’s
time to analyze the sample, resample to con昀椀rm, assess the
condition, and determine the next actions, such as o昀툀ine testing
to understand whether the transformer can remain in service.
Unfortunately, as the grid becomes more stressed, labs are
having a hard time keeping up. It normally takes 15 days or
fewer to get results, but recently, in North America, it may take
up to 30-90 days to get results. This strategy is becoming
increasingly di昀케cult to manage. In rare cases, transformers
have failed before results come back from the lab.
Figure 4. The failure rate of power transformers.
Each line represents the failure rate oftransformers
produced in a particular decade
Luckily, technology is now available to assist asset owners in
their efforts to manage their transformer 昀氀eets in real-time. For
many years, utilities have relied on data such as temperature
and load to help them understand the real-time operation of
their transformers. Today, there are many online monitoring
choices available that vary from large monitoring solutions
to less complex, compact solutions. As these solutions have
evolved, technology now allows online monitoring of almost
every aspect of the real-time operation of transformers. The
goal is to detect issues well before failure so the transformer
can be repaired in the 昀椀eld or taken out-ofservice on a scheduled
basis rather than dealing with an unplanned outage.
Figure 3. Transformer failure over time
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