Fabio Scatiggio

TERNA RETE ITALIA

Laboratorio Chimico

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Health Index: the TERNAs

Practical Approach for
Transformers Fleet Management

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

HEALTH INDEX = PHILOSOPHERS STONE ?

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

The asset management needs a tool for supporting engineering decisions and
capital replacement plans HEALTH INDEX

Power transformers have indisputably the highest value of the equipment

installed in transmission substations, comprising up the 60% of the total
investment.

Introduction

10

12

14

16

18

0-5

TERNAs transformers age

Age (years)

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60

Average = 21,3
years

Up today the maintenance and the replacement strategies are basically age
oriented

Introduction

i
i

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Failure rate () is expressed as:

= 100
N

Recently a CIGRE WG has presented an interim report as update of the

previous CIGRE report published in 1983
CIGRE A2.37 Transformer Reliability Survey: Interim Report Electra N
261 - April 2012
A. Bossi et al. An international Survey on Failures in Large Power
Transformers in Service Final Report Electra N 88, pp. 22-48, 1983

Benchmarking

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5

0,6

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2006

Years

2005

Benchmarking

F a ilu re ra t e %

2007

2008

CIGRE target

Year

2009

2010

2011

Bushings
17%
Insulation
1%

HV
connections
7%

Windings
45%

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Core and
magnetic
circuits
3%

OLTC
26%

Other
1%

2.

1.

Closeness to towns

Recrudescence of catastrophic events, etc.

Dielectric

Thermal

Mechanical

Oil aging.

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

The mathematical combination

of the 2 parameter generates
the HI, which is of capital
importance for addressing the
managing of large transformers
fleets

Substation layout

Transformer condition (dynamic)

Keraunic level

Site specificity (static)

It combines 2 parameters:

Health Index (HI)

(lightning/year Km2)

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

numbers of lightnings to earth of Italian cities

Norma CEI 81- 3: Medium values of the

Keraunic level

Health Index (HI)

 Based
on
Natural
Breaks
methodology
Area type (farm, industrial, residential)
Population density (inhabitants/km2)
Closeness to human habitations

Substation vulnerability

Health Index (HI)

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Generate a traffic light tool, in 5 risk classes:

Very low
Low
Medium
High
Very high

Substation vulnerability

Health Index (HI)

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

From in-lab and on-site periodical checks

Transformer condition

Health Index (HI)

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

From on-line detectors (DGA, PD, tan delta, etc.)

Transformer condition

Health Index (HI)

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

PCB and Corrosive Sulfur weren't considered because removed or

mitigated

Dielectric & Thermal (DGA = hydrogen, methane, ethane,

ethylene and acetylene)
Purely Thermal (2-FAL + CO2 + CO + CO2/CO)
Mechanical (Inductance + SFRA + FDS/PDC)
Oil (water + acidity + breakdown voltage + DDF)

Transformer condition

Health Index (HI)

GOOD

FAIR

POOR

1) DGA from CIGRE

From IEC, IEEE, CIGRE

From owners practices

For comparison

Thresholds and limits

FAIR

POOR

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

GOOD

6.57
99

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

3.25
97

POOR

2.35
95

FAIR

0.95
90

2-FAL
(mg/Kg)

GOOD

percentile

2) 2-FAL from statistical computation of analytical data-base

From IEC, IEEE, CIGRE

From owners practices

Thresholds and limits

3) Oil aging from IEC

Parameter

DDF

BDV

KV

mg KOH/g oil

mg/Kg

U.M.

KV

mg KOH/g oil

mg/Kg

M. U.

0.1-0.2

60-50

0.10-0.15

15-20

FAIR

>0.2

<50

>0.15

>20

POOR

<0.1

>50

<0.10

< 20

GOOD

0.1-0.5

50-40

0.10-0.20

20-30

FAIR

>0.5

<40

>0.20

>30

POOR

TR voltage < 170 KV

<0.1

>60

<0.10

< 15

GOOD

TR voltage > 170 KV

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Acidity (NN)

Water

Parameter

DDF

BDV

Acidity (NN)

Water

From IEC, IEEE, CIGRE

From owners practices

Thresholds and limits

4) SFRA

From IEC, IEEE, CIGRE

From owners practices

Thresholds and limits

Poor

Not
overlap

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Good
Overlap

SFRA

Condition

Normal

Attention

Fair

Poor

L %

< 1.5

1.5 2.5

2.5 - 5

>5

None

Action

Replace

Replacement scheduled

Yearly check

INDUCTANCE

Normal
Attention
Fair
Poor

2.2 3.7
3.7 4.8
> 4.8

Condition
< 2.2

RH %

FDS/PDC

Extremely wet

Wet

Partially wet

Dry

Solid
insulation
status

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

5) Leakage inductance and FDS/PDC

From IEC, IEEE, CIGRE

From owners practices

Thresholds and limits

Since the test

parameters are
expressed in different
units (kV, ppm, %, etc.)
they must be converted
in a non-dimensional
number (rank).
Water
= 18
mg/Kg

Test

0
0.15
0.3

Good < 15
Fair 15 -20
Poor > 20

0.15

0.15

Rank

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

No

Yes

No

True or
False

Weighted rank for water content =

Relative
Weight

IEC 60422,
for >170 kV

Example of calculation (water)

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

The relative weight applied is inevitably questionable.

Since the risk relevance of the different parameters is

largely different, the scoring system is designed so that
every individual measure is multiply by a relative
weight.

Relative Weight

HI ( p.u .) =

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

HI dielectric + HI thermal + HI mechanical + HI oil

max

And then also to all the other categories

+ ... test n

HI oil = Weighted rank test1 + Weighted rank test 2 +

The same approach was applied at all the considered

parameters for oil evaluation

Health Index (HI)

DIE

TERM

MEC

OLIO>

PFO1

PFO2

O
PF

0,13

O
PF

0,09

O
PF

0,30

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

0,00

0,25

0,50

Real application to transformers

PFO3

0,00

0,25

0,50

51

101

151

201

251

301

451

501

551

601

651

701

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

351
401
Trafo #

Real application to entire transformers fleet

H I (p . u . )

0,00

0,25

0,50

10

15

20

25

Health Index (HI) vs. Age

H I (p .u .)

40

45

50

55

60

65

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

30
35
Age (y)

R2 = 0,0003

Condition

Very Good

Good

Fair

Poor

HI

0 0.10

0.10 0.20

0.20 0.30

> 0.30

Red

Yellow

Pale Blue

Green

Colour

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

< 0,05

304

102
42

31
13

>0,40

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

HI

0,05 - 0,10 0,10 - 0,15 0,15 - 0,20 0,20 - 0,25 0,25 - 0,30 0,30 - 0,35 0,35 - 0,40

217

Health Index (HI) vs. Risk Condition

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

Number of energyzations, load, oil and winding

temperature, defects and relevant breakdown, trouble
familiarity, leakages, etc.

Trend, variations over the time

Future improvements:

Limitations and flexibility due to overlapping of same

parameters significance and their thresholds

Pragmatic tool for the maintenance and replacement

strategies based on condition

Useful tool for representing the real condition of every single

transformer

Conclusion

Life Cycle of Power Transformers Belgrade 2014

fabio.scatiggio@terna.it