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Vol. 3(2), pp. 104-111, November, 2017. www.premierpublishers.org, ISSN: 3254-1213x
Conference Paper
This paper describes the various options of energy conservation methods to enhance the energy
efficiency of transformers. The energy economics of using low loss core is also studied and given
the results in this paper. The load management of distribution transformers have reduced the
energy losses considerably in industries. In this paper, a detailed computer based evaluation of
energy losses due to off-design operation and size mismatch of transformers, unbalanced
secondary load, low power factor on the secondary are discussed for thermal power stations and
process industries. Automation of transformer management is described as it can lead to
considerable saving in energy. The energy conservation measures for distribution transformers
have reduced the transformer losses by 10 15 % in industries.
Keywords: energy efficiency, all day efficiency, eddy current losses, winding losses, load factor,
INTRODUCTION
The present total installed power generation capacity in The transformers are the simple electrical equipment that
India is 228.72 GW, out of which 44 % of the energy is transfer the power from voltage level to other voltage i.e.,
being used by industries. The estimated energy loss in either step up or step down. This equipment is robust and
transformers is 520 MW in industrial system (CEA, 2013, sturdy which does not have any moving parts.
Growth of Electricity Sector in India from 1947 to 2013). Transformers require least maintenance compared to
other electrical equipment. Due to the advancement in
Electrical energy is the most popular form of energy being transformer core technology, new low loss transformers
used as the main driving force in industrial units and power introduced.
stations due to its versatility, easy to use & less pollution
(Energy conservation in India (1983), Energy conservation The losses in transformers account for 3.6 % of total
bulletin, Tata Energy Documentation and Information auxiliary power in a typical 210 MW plant and are in the
Centre, 1983). The electrical energy for industrial sector range of 5 % to 16 % in process industries. Thus, due to
accounts for about 50 % of total energy generated. Indian acute shortage in power, it is essential to conserve the
industries consume about 25 % more electrical energy for energy through minimizing the transformer losses by
the same level of production as compared to the advanced design up-gradation, use of low loss material, improved
countries due to hesitation in technology up-gradation, secondary load power factor, minimizing the voltage and
obsolete equipment, higher line losses, inadequate load unbalance, suppressing the harmonics, use of better
capacitive power compensation, poor quality of power quality of oil, etc. (Rajashekar P. Mandi et al., 2012).
supply, etc.
A. Iron losses These eddy current losses are more for the harmonic
prone areas where the higher order frequencies are
The iron losses account for 1.77 - 3.85% of total input available in the system voltage. The possibility of
energy in an industry. These losses are mainly eddy transformer core failure is more in harmonic prone area.
current and hysteresis losses. The increased iron losses These core losses play a major role in industrial system
are due to idle charging, oversizing, use of inferior core and power stations where the loading on these
material and harmonics in the distribution system, etc. transformers will be less. All these transformers have to be
Table I gives the core losses for different types of cores either idle charged or loaded at partially cause more losses
used in transformers. in core because core losses depend on the applied voltage
and frequency and not directly depend on the load carried
TABLE I. THE CORE LOSSES FOR DIFFERENT through transformers (Rajashekar P. Mandi and
GRADES OF TRANSFORMER CORES. Udaykumar R Yaragatti, 2014).
S/No Type/grade Thickness, Core loss at flux
mm density of 1.7 T, The suggested measures are:
W/kg i. The stand-by transformers may be de-energised on
01 M4 0.27 1.22 primary side.
02 MOH 0.30 1.01 ii. Generally industrial distribution transformers are
03 ZH 100 0.27 0.96 designed based on the all day efficiency of transformer
04 ZDKH 0.23 0.84 and lower loading on these transformers cause more
05 Metal glass alloy
0.025 0.31 core losses.
SA1
iii. The loading on transformer in industries is often in the
range between 10 - 30 % (low load factor). Wherever
It can be seen from the table that the metal glass
more number of transformers are installed and are
(Amorphous) cores will reduce the core loss by about 75
working at low load factors, it is economical to shift all
% and the cost of the metal glass core transformer will be
the load on to a single or multiple transformers without
1.6 to 2 times (Hitachi, Catalogue on Hitachi Amorphous
increasing the transformer load factor to above 65 - 70
Core Transformers, Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems
%.
Co. Ltd., Singapore). The Iron losses are divided into a)
iv. The suppression of harmonics in the distribution will
hysteresis losses & b) eddy current losses. Hysteresis
reduce the eddy current and hysteresis losses.
losses are those which are inherent to magnetic fields. An
empirical relation for hysteresis losses is given by
B. Winding losses
(Sawhney A.K., 1990):
The winding losses in the transformers are in the range of
Wh k h .B 1.6
max .f W (1) 0.25 - 1.65 % of total energy in an industry. The increased
winding losses are due to poor power factor, load
unbalance, winding temperature and harmonic currents on
where Kh is a constant dependent on the material used, f is the secondary (Say M.G., 1983).
frequency in Hertz and Bmax is maximum flux density in
wb/m2. The poor power factor will reduce the capacity of the
transformer. The improved secondary power factor will
Hysteresis losses mainly depend on applied voltage and reduce the winding losses and enhance the transformer
frequency. If the voltage and frequency is high, the capacity. The unbalanced load on secondary causes the
hysteresis losses will be more. But these losses mainly reduction in transformer capacity. A load unbalance of 50
depend on the type of material used. The present new % will reduce the transformer capacity approximately by
material (Amorphous) available in the market is having less 14.5 %.
hysteresis loss. The increased winding temperature causes the increased
Eddy current losses occur because the magnetic core losses. The winding temperature may increase because of
material itself consists of material that conducts electricity. inadequate cooling provided by oil i.e., sludge formation in
As voltages are induced in the material by alternating the oil, more acidity content of oil, presence of dissolved
magnetic fields, currents called eddy currents are gases in the oil, etc. Fig. 1 shows the local cooling
produced. An approximate expression for these losses is technique used by providing desert coolers in a sub-station
given by: to maintain the transformer winding temperature below its
trip limit. Fig. 2 gives the view of transformer is cooled by
providing the water just below the transformer base. The
Wh ke .Bmax
2
. f 2 .t 2 W (2) current harmonics increase the RMS value of the current,
which will increase the winding losses. These losses can
where Ke is a constant dependent on the material and t is be tapped by suppressing the harmonics with the help of
thickness of material. filters.
Enhancing Energy Efficiency of Distribution Transformers through Energy Conservation Techniques
Int. Res. J. Power Energy Engin. 106
B. Harmonics
TABLE II. MEASURED CURRENT AND COMPUTED Fig. 3. Variation of efficiency with load factor.
LOAD UNBALANCE AT LIGHTING TRANSFORMERS.
Case study 3: In a case study at power station, the power
Primary current, Secondary Load factor measured at secondary of Lighting transformers in
Particular A current, A unbalance, each phase are in the range of 0.06 and 0.93 (Table III).
R Y B R Y B % The lower power factor causes more flow of current in the
Tr. No. 23 12.5 11.4 12.3 7.8 9.8 6. 8 20.2 transformer winding that increased the losses in
Tr. No. 43 12.6 13.8 13.0 6.7 11.7 7.1 37.8 transformer. The installation of switchable single phase
Tr. No. 33 34.5 28.5 37.1 35.2 25.2 32.3 18.4 capacitor banks (360 kVAR) at secondaries of
Tr. No. 26 27.0 28.4 21.7 18.1 32.2 16.9 43.7 transformers lead to energy saving of 892 kWh/month and
Tr. No. 27 23.5 29.0 24.2 17.8 26.1 22.8 19.9 network demand saving of 25 kVA. The investment of Rs.
Tr. No. 52 5.8 6.4 6.7 1.28 2.3 1.1 45.8 4.00 lakhs had a payback period of 40 months.
Tr. No. 29 52.4 44.9 45.8 48.9 49.8 33.3 24.3
Tr. No. 60 12.4 12.3 9.1 6.4 6.2 8.3 18.5 E. Load factor & transformer management
Tr. No. 74 8.0 10.2 7.7 1.1 8.2 7.8 81.1
Tr. No. 55 16.7 13.9 15.2 14.5 13.0 10.2 18.8 The overloading of transformer increases the hot spot
Tr. No. 35 15.1 12.2 12.0 12.1 13.1 3.2 66.2 temperature of winding. The rate of deterioration increases
exponentially with temperature rise. This will reduce the
D. Power factor transformer life drastically.
The power factor in industries was varying between 0.70 Case study 4: In a case study in an industry, there were
to 0.85. At poor power factor of secondary load, the 24 transformers of different ratings installed in six sub-
transformer efficiency is low. Fig. 3 gives the efficiency of stations. Table IV gives the load factor and all-day
transformer with improvement in power factor for 500 kVA efficiency of transformers. The transformers are loaded
transformers. The efficiency for 500 kVA transformer (load between 6.4 % and 39.6 %. The load factors were very
factor: 35%) is increased from 97.6 % to 98.5 % by less. The de-energisation of low loaded and standby
improving the power factor from 0.70 to about 0.98. This transformers, and charging any one of the transformers in
had reduced the energy consumption of 324 kWh/month each group reduced the energy consumption of 24.58
and the demand saving was 50 kVA. The investment is Rs. MWh/month in an industry. The changeover of transformer
1.50 lakhs (125 kVAR) and the payback period with charging may be programmed cyclically by PLC based
considering the total demand saving at network is 13 automatic controller or manual in 4-6-day cycle to avoid
months which is economically feasible solution. increase of moisture content of transformer oil.
The transformer efficiency will be maximum when iron Table V. Transformers to be charged with different values of X
losses are equal to winding losses. Generally, the iron Numbers to be charged Value of X
losses and winding losses will be equal at load factor of 45 1 X2
to 55 % in case of distribution transformers. If the iron
losses and winding losses are equal at 50 % load factor.
2 2X 6
Till the transformer load factor increases to 50 %, the iron 3 6 X 12
losses will be dominant and above 50 % load factor, the 4 12 X 20
winding losses will be dominant. In case if two 5 30 X 30
transformers are sharing the load, it is economical to
operate only one transformer while de-energizing other It can be seen from the Table V that if X is between 2 and
transformer till the load factor transformer reaches to about 6, the number of transformers to be charged is 2 numbers
70 %. If the load factor is more than 70 %, it is economical to optimize the total transformer losses.
to operate both transformers in parallel to reduce winding
losses. In order to optimization of number of transformers Case study 5: In a thermal power plant, there are two
to be energized following relation is developed. The station transformers (charged from the grid, 220 kV / 6.6
number of transformers to be charged in a bunch of kV) of 50 MVA ratings for two 210 MW units and two unit
transformer is computed and is given in Table V. auxiliary transformers (charged from the individual 210
MW generator voltage, 15.7 kV / 6.6 kV) of 16 MVA rating
PT2 P for 210 MW plant. The auxiliary load is about 18 to 19 MW.
X 2 n C ( 4)
Pr Pi During a cold start, the entire auxiliary load is handled by
the station transformers. Even if the load on the unit is
Where PT is the total demand in kVA, Pr is the rating of increased to full load, the auxiliaries will still be on the
transformer in kVA, Pi is the No-load losses in kW, Pc is station transformers. Our study indicated that when the
the Load losses of transformer in kW and n is the No. of load on each unit is raised above 30 MW, the auxiliary load
transformers present. can be shifted on to unit auxiliary transformers.