Improving the Distribution efficiency by Real time Monitoring and Analysis of

Transformers

India has one of the largest electrical power distribution network in the world
connecting the consumer base of around 200 million having 400 GW connected load.

The Power network in India distributed 1142 billion units generated in 2018-19 (till
Feb19) and the current reported ATC losses are approximately 19.69 % which is quiet
high compared to the ATC losses of developed countries where the losses are below
9%.

The losses are attributed to poor administrative management, inadequately

maintained distribution network, Inadequate Planning of Capacity leading to
Inefficiency in networks and electrical equipment such as transformers, cables,
conductors, switchgear etc. and Ageing of infrastructure.
Transformer in the distribution network are the key assets and the estimated losses in
the transformers is estimated to be at approximately 4 % winch amonts to 200 Billion INR
as against the standard acceptable losses of < 1%.

The primary reason attributed to the technical losses in a distribution transformer are.
a) Inadequate Planning: It often leads to addition of consumers and overloading
the transformer due to allocation of new customers thereby causing inefficiency
thus generating more losses dissipated in the form of heat and leads to a
temperature rise in the transformer and lead to temperature rise in the
transformer which further increases losses.

b) Operating condition: Transformer when subjected to unbalanced loading

condition causes flow of circulating current in the winding.
There would also be scenarios when the transformer are overloaded for a
longer duration then factored in the design which would lead to increased loss.

c) Inadequate Maintenance: Considering the geographical coverage and number

of distribution transformer in the network would require a large manpower,
however due to financial burden of maintaining and training the maintenance
division of distribution companies are under staffed and under trained.

The transformer for distribution network are designed with a service life of 25 years.
Transformers are continuously subjected to Environmental and Operation Stress
which impact their performance. Inadequate maintenance creates the degradation in
the transformer which results in to high losses and accelerated ageing of transformer
thereby reduces the service life.
Traditional Maintenance Practices
The traditional maintenance is performing periodic Offline testing, to maintain
and manage large network requires

1) Large skilled manpower for maintenance.

2) Investment in large quantities of different type of offline testing equipment.
3) Continuous training of the Testing and Maintenance team.
4) Power shut down for the maintenance for prolonged durations of testing.
5) Manual keeping of maintenance track record.

There is huge financial cost of keeping large maintenance manpower, testing

equipment and routine skill upgradation of field force

This is only spot assessment of the transformer and is repeated only after 6 months
to 1 year hence it in absence of real time data it is difficult for prediction or advance
intimation of sudden deviation of any measured parameter or to do any route cause
analysis in event of degradation or failure of the transformer

There is a huge financial impact due to outage or shut down of transformer for long
duration which results into the revenue loss and loss of productivity.

A cost effective and efficient system is required as an alternate for the traditional
maintenance for the distribution companies which are already struggling with high
percentage of losses in the system

Enabling Technologies

The breakthrough in cloud technologies for storage, processing and analysing large
volume of data along with very significant enhancement in edge computing
capabilities enabling to hardware to capture the sensors data and process in real time
and be able present it in meaning full structure to a Middle ware gateways for seamless
flow of the data to cloud hosted application would make it possible to monitoring store
and do analysis of large number of scattered assets like Distribution transformer in a
very cost effective manner.
Transformer IoT Multi Monitor: Real Time Health Assessment Solution

Motwane has introduced Transformer IoT MultiMonitor

It records and Monitor vital parameters can be monitored, recorded and
analysed for estimating the health of the transformer in Distribution Network.

The Condition based health assessment would identify the events of abnormality
 Unbalance in the Load currents.
 Over load condition.
 Oil temperature fluctuation with load currents.
 Leakage of the transformer oil.
 Estimated Winding temperature.
 Estimation of parameters based on comparing measured values and
Transformer Data.
 Correlation between the Load currents and other measured parameters
 Perform cause and effect analysis.
 Advance analytics and data modelling for estimation of the Asset behaviour our
period of time
 Transformer behaviour with respect to the other influencing parameters.
 Advance pre notification on possibility of any parameter crossing the set limit.
 Residual life assessment.

Real Time Monitoring of Distribution Transformer

Real Time Monitoring of the above parameters without the intervention of personnel
firstly generates reliable data which can be analyzed by software for co-relation and
trending. It can generate real time alerts with precise location thereby enabling prompt
and economical maintenance action which can then be corrected by low skilled staff.

The monitoring of the transformer in the distribution network requires real-time data
on its’ health parameters and trends of this data is made possible by deploying cost
effective sensors, hardware to integrate, perform computation and a reliable
communication network to access the data effectively and the infrastructure to store
and compute the large volume of data. Advancements in computer processing
technology and storage capacity availability are enabling factors in the monitoring of
distribution transformers.

The vital parameters which can be remotely monitored, stored and analyzed for
estimating the health of the transformer in Distribution Network are
a) Load current of the three phases
b) Oil temperature
c) Oil level in the conservator tank
d) Ambient Temperature
e) Humidity

This data can be analyzed for historical trends, correlations and the predictions can be made
using statistical tools.
Based on the above parameters the following events can be identified.

a) Unbalance in the load currents

b) Over load condition
c) Oil temperature fluctuation with load currents
d) Leakage of the transformer oil

Further to these the following important parameters can be inferred and alerts can be
generated when any parameter crosses a limit value.

a) Estimated winding temperature

b) Estimation of some parameters based on comparing measured values and the
transformer data (e.g. winding hot spot temperature)
c) Correlation between the load currents and other measured parameters
d) Perform cause and effect analysis
e) To estimate the event of any parameter crossing the set limit based on the historical
trend.

Monitoring of Power Transformer

The Power Transformers in the distribution substation typically have the following sensors
which are used for status alerts, safety and protection

a) Buchholz (gas operated relay)

b) Oil level gauge
c) Pressure relief valve
d) Oil temperature gauge

The above sensors are calibrated to operate when the value of the parameter measured
breaches the set point.

The Buchholz and Oil temperature gauge has an early set point which is used to activate the
alarm and annunciation. The next set point is used to send the trip command to the switchgear
to isolate the transformer from the network.

The proximity to the control room makes it feasible to connect these sensors to the control
room and monitor the substation transformer.

SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE

Enabling Technologies
A solution with this architecture is enabled by significant improvements in information and
communication technologies..
Through vast improvements to edge computing capabilities, localized hardware is designed
and deployed to capture large streams of data from a variety of sensors, process it in real time
and package it efficiently to communicate over the chosen medium.

Ongoing, continuous upgrades to communication technologies allow systems to transmit and

receive large volumes of data, at high transmission rates, to servers in the cloud.

The breakthrough in cloud technologies for storing, computing and analyzing large volumes
of data makes such deployments – monitoring of large number of scattered assets like
distribution transformers – possible, and cost effective.
Micro-services based architectures utilizing databases built to efficiently handle large volumes,
varieties and velocities of unstructured and structured data, deployed on self-scalable servers,
enable the storage, computation and analysis of this data.

IoT server

Edge Controller

Remote Location

The edge controller installed at the transformer integrates the following sensors for remotely
monitoring it.

a) Current transformer for each phase

b) Oil level gauge
c) Oil temperature sensor
d) Ambient temperature
e) Humidity
f) GPS locator
The data received is processed in real time and made available to the middleware gateway
via telecom network (2G/3G/4G)

The data is securely transmitted and stored in the IoT platform with the time stamp. The live
parameters of the transformer configured under this solution can be viewed from any location
via an internet connected device (computer, tablet or mobile).

The historical data is plotted against time to display the trend. Historical trends help in
analyzing of the performance of the transformer, understand correlations between different
parameters and decipher any patterns.

The change in the value of parameter from its historical value over a period of time and in
correlation of other parameters can help assess the future possibilities of occurrence of faults
or failures and predicting the residual life based on the temperatures during overload
conditions.

For the power transformer installed in the substation the system can also integrate the fowling
additional inputs listed below.

 Oil temperature alarm and trip contacts

 Winding temperature alarm and trip contacts
 Buchholz relay alarm and trip contacts
 Operation of pressure release valve
 Number of operations of OLTC and the operating tap number

ADVANTAGE OF REAL-TIME MONITORING

The implementation of this solution would provide the actual values of the measured
parameters of transformers in real-time and at different locations in the power distribution
network which is not possible in offline testing.

This allows the distribution companies and industries to perform risk based assessments, take
informed, data-driven decisions on the scope and scale of the maintenance (repair or
replacement) for an individual transformer, thereby reducing the overall operations and
maintenance cost. .

In case of pre-scheduled maintenance, the time for outage can be minimized reducing the loss
of revenue.

The solution unlocks the power of big data computing and provides the clean data directly
from the measurement sensors simplifying the ability to do analyses.

Analyzing the data would help predict the likelihood of failures due to overloads and
overheating and direct experts to take proactive measures to avoid losses due to failure of
asset and the cost of repair or replacement.

Furthermore, aggregated data from the system of transformer monitors would help to optimize
the distribution network topology to avoid unbalanced and over load conditions.

The system can be made even more robust with it’s integration to various systems (e.g.
SCADA, DCS, PMS, AMS…) via a common set of tools, definitions or protocols used to
integrate software applications, known as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This
allows for an applications to interact and communicate with each other without sharing on how
the application has been implemented or architected. This also allows for a seamless user
experience and allows for broader interactivity from the user with their set of applications used.

The real-time transformer monitoring solution is the use of available computing and sensing
technologies to help digititalize and ageing infrastructure network for enhancing the efficiency
and reliability of power through the network. This solution helps:

 Drive down the cost of operations and maintenance by using optimizations on the
scope, priority and frequency of maintenance using the predictive and planned outage
schedule.

 Improve the reliability of the power distribution network by monitoring and maintaining
the critical transformers.

 Reduce revenue losses due reduced unplanned outages in the event of transformer
failure.

 Increasing the lifespan of transformers by reducing the events and extent of

overloading and unbalanced loading condition beyond the operational limits.

 Maximize the transformer and distribution network efficiency by load management

reducing the losses in the system.