Real-time transformer monitoring
New technologies reduce costs and prevent power blackouts. Doctors learn much about a person`s health through blood tests. Power engineers can determine the health of a transformer by analyzing its vital fluid, the mineral dielectric oil. Thermal and electric stresses can cause the oil and cellulose materials in transformers to break down. This generates a variety of gases as by-products which dissolve in the oil. Monitoring the gas production abnormalities can save maintenance costs, help forecast and schedule repairs, costs, help forecast and schedule repairs, optimize loading during peak periods and predict transformer failure resulting in blackouts or even catastrophic accidents. Most utilities take oil samples periodically for dissolved gas analysis (DGA) laboratory testing. This is time- and labor-intensive and, more importantly, problems may not be detected before the transformer fails. Now there are several techniques for realtime, remote sampling so utilities can be alerted to both trends and sudden changes in transformer fault gas production.
- OSTI ID:
- 482393
- Journal Information:
- Public Power, Vol. 54, Issue 5; Other Information: PBD: Sep-Oct 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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