Managing transformers by Key fault Gases

On-Line Monitoring

The challenges facing the electric utilities for the past years are unrelenting and are summed up in one sentence: “Reduce operating costs, enhance the availability of the generating and transmission equipment and improve the supply of power and service to the customer base.”

And this, in an environment where the available resources are inexorably decreasing and the pressure from the shareholders and the competition mount steadily.
The concerted actions of all involved must impact every line of the income statement and of the balance sheet as costs and requests for new capital must be greatly reduced.
Oil-filled electrical equipment, such as transformers, shunt reactors, current transformers and bushings, are critical elements of an electrical power system. Their reliable and continued performance is the key to profitable generation and transmission. Their failures, and resulting unavailability, create losses of revenues.
These failures, when catastrophic, will generate substantial costs in terms of peripheral equipment destruction, environmental damages and unplanned emergency utilization of human resources and alternative power sources. The early detection of incipient faults will have a measurable impact in the results required to meet these formidable challenges.
Monitoring creates the opportunity to strategically plan and schedule outages and to manage equipment utilization and availability. In a deregulated environment, fast response to sudden requirements for overloading and taking advantage of market opportunities will be key to the success of any supplier of electrical power. Operating costs will be reduced as the equipment will be repaired within a scheduled repair plan, often on-site and many times under warranty.
Managing and extending the life of critical power equipment requires reliable and continuous monitoring. The early detection of incipient faults in transformers will greatly reduce unplanned power outages and improve the reliability of the power and service supplied to customers. Fault conditions often lead to catastrophic failures.
Their early detection will limit these events and enhance the safety of substation personnel. Monitoring a fast developing fault and evaluating its progress provides the necessary information to marshal all the essential resources to react on time and reduce the overall damages.