Infrastructure, Innovation & Technology
Why early fault, failure detection is critical for transformer maintenance
When conducting transformer maintenance, early detection of faults and potential failures in transformers is critical. Transformers play a crucial role in transferring electricity over long distances, a key to infrastructure of a region and ensuring power supply to cities, industrial plants and other critical users.
Photo by Önder Andinç on Unsplash
Gert Nel, WearCheck’s transformer division manager, outlines the importance of DGA in transformer maintenance: “Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) is used mostly for fault detection in transformers, and it is critically important that the analysis is accurate. By analysing the gases dissolved in the transformer’s oil, we gain important clues about the health of the transformer.”
DGA saves transformer operators money on avoidable repairs, time, and helps avoid greater problems such as an interrupted power supply. It also helps prolong the life of the transformer.
Nel explains the process: “Small amounts of gases are formed in the oil when a transformer is in operation. Using DGA, hidden problems inside the transformer are revealed by detecting the gases in the oil.
“Some of the common transformer problems and the associated gases include oil overheating (ethane and ethylene), insulation paper overheating (carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and acetic acid gases), air ingress (oxygen and nitrogen), and partial discharge (hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide gases), sparking and arcing type of faults (methane and acetylene).
“The early detection of potential transformer faults enables remedial action to be implemented, and major failures averted.”
Nel discusses a WearCheck client that only requested for M/A/D (moisture/dielectric/acidity) results over the years, and when the very first DGA was done, it showed a critical error: “The DGA indicated an actual internal electrical problem, however, the client wasn’t convinced and even did two oil changes in 24 months, hoping this would solve the problem. Changing the oil did not fix the problem, however. All this did was to remove evidence of the problem. The actual electrical fault was still present in the transformer, and a new trend was then required after the oil was changed.
“In this case, the DGA was indicative of an actual fault, and the oil changes did not fix the fault. This is very important, as a lot of clients only test for M/D, and not the full DGA analysis. Eventually, the client made the decision to include all tests in their ongoing maintenance plan, and took the recommended remedial action to fix the electrical fault."