MODERN SYSTEMS FOR TRANSFORMER AND ELECTRIC MACHINE

MONITORING
Valentin Berca, Svetlana Ionescu, Ion Munteanu, Augustin Popescu
R&D Institute I.C.M.E.T., 144 Calea Bucuresti St., 1100 Craiova, Romania

Abstract
Turned up in 1984, on the ELECTROPUTERE industrial
area, within R&D Inst. ICMET, Electric Traction
Laboratory (ETL) has a main field of activity the testing
of electric traction railway vehicles and equipments fitted
up on these vehicles.
On the other hand ETL developed microcontroller
measurement equipments for SNCFR (Romanian
Railways Administration) and RENEL (Romanian Energy
Administration).
The paper presents two systems for surveillance and
recording the data of the power circuits of the railway
traction vehicles and in electrical traction substation. The
analysis and monitoring of energetic parameters is
necessary to maintain reliability and optimum operation
of the railway grid.
Determination of the place where there is an equipment
on the life curve allows the providing measures for
replacing and repairing in due time.
The solving of these matters by means of self-contained,
cheap intelligent systems with microprocessors with
storage of all the characteristic quantities in the nonvolatile memory, their serial transfer to an IBM-PC
computer will lead to increasing of the reliability of the
power electrotechnical equipments.
1. Introduction
Power electrotechnical equipments coming into the
componency of a railway network have an extremely
important part in reliable and stable operation of the
whole railway system on electrified railway lines.
A good operation of the system is acquired when the
supply source (transformer) does not present random
drops and the energy supplied to the rail vehicles is of
quality.
The main driving elements on the vehicles, transformers
and electric motors should also operate in the reliable
range of operation, too.
For this, the operation parameters of the transformer
within the line power supply substation, operation
parameters of the main transformer on the vehicle and of
the traction motors should be monitored permanently. The
systems achieved by Electric Traction Laboratorys
experts in ICMET Craiova achieve the monitoring of
transformer and electric machine operation. This
monitoring is achieved by microcontrollers built around of
some processors with 8 bits, SRAM memory up to 512

kbytes. The purpose of operation monitoring is the

removing of the accidental drops caused by wear (ageing)
of winding insulation.
2. Transformer monitoring system
Within a classical power supply system for the railway
network of 25 kV, 50Hz, the transformers have as a rule
the following rated working voltages:
- primary U=110kV
- secondary U=27.5kV
The experiments of the equipment were performed into an
electric traction substation in which the transformer has
the following rated data:
- rated voltages: primary / secondary 110 kV / 27.5 kV;
- rated currents: primary / secondary 145.5A / 583A;
- rated power: 16 MVA
- cooling type: in oil ONAF
In a substation there are two identical single phase
transformers connected to primary and secondary between
the same phases. In standard operation the transformers
are in alternating load on certain periods of time.
In case of a very high demand of power (situations of load
taking over from the adjacent substations) there is the
possibility of parallel running of the two transformers.
Designed monitoring equipment follows the both
transformers and for this, it uses the following pieces of
information:
- load currents from secondary it1, it2;
- oil temperatures in the upper part of the tank OH1, OH2;
- oil temperatures in the lower part of the tank OL1, OL2;
- environmental temperature in the proximity of each
transformer a1, a2.
With the view to determinating by computation the
winding temperature it is necessary the value of the
thermal time constant for winding heating. These values
are acquired from designing data or from certification test
results.
Depending on the power of the transformer the thermal
time constant is contented betwen 1 to 30 minutes. for
winding and about 2 hours for oil, generally. The use of
intelligent equipments for monitoring of the evolution of
the temperature of the various parts of the transformer
allow the modelling of the heating phenomenon of the
winding, taking into account exactly of its thermal time
constant. Consequently the temperature of the windings is
determined more accurately, the transformer being able to
be charged more closely to its rated capacity.
If it is noted with:

W=

winding heating
Wr = rated heating of the transformer winding in
conditions of the operation at the rated current, rated
voltage and ambient temperature = 20 C
or = rated oil heating
i = current through transformer
ir= rated current of the transformer
OH = oil heating in the upper part of the tank
tw = thermal time constant of the winding
T0 = oil temperature in the upper part
Ta = ambient temperature (of the cooling air)
The winding heating is determined by relation:
W

Wr

i
ir

0r

1 e

t
tw

To

Ta
y

( C)

(1)

where: k = 1.6 ...2 depending on oil circulation mode

y = OH / 0 med ;
omed

OH

OL

tw

wr

0r

i
ir

10

(7)

q THS THSr

where THSr is the rated hot spot temperature

corresponding to standard ageing of the insulation.
Life consumption rate presents practical importance if it is
determined the consumed life time from the total life time
specified by manufacturer.
In case of transformer operation under a variable
temperature which corresponds to the reality in most of
cases into practice, the consumed life time T is
determined by integration thus:

Vdt

(hours)

(8)

k
W

pT
T
e HS HSr

(2)
The recurrent relation resulting for the winding heating
computation is:
W

Life. consumption. rate

S tan dard. ageing. rate. of . the. insulation

( C)

Transformer operation at the rated heating of the

windings at the ambient temperature of 20 C complies
with an ageing of insulation (of 1 ageing day to 1 calendar
day).

( C)

(3)

This recurrent relation leads to thermal image of the

winding. It is estimated that both heating and cooling of
the winding is made with the same thermal time constant.

Fig.1
Fig.1 shows the evolution of the charging and of the
temperature of the transformer of 16MVA, 110kV,
27.5kV on a period of 24 hours.
Winding temperature is:
TW = W + T0
( C)
(4)
The hot spot of the winding has the temperature given by
relation [1]:
THS = T0 + 1.1 W
( C)
(5)
The temperature of the hot spot being determinated it can
be estimated the relative life consumption rate at the rated
temperature.
The life of the insulating material degraded due to
temperature in accordance with relation of Montsinger is:
L e p
(-)
(6)
where: p - material constant
- cooling medium temperature ( C)
(between 80 C and 140 C)

Transformer operation with the winding temperature

below 80 C leads to a insignificant life time consumption
from the view point of the insulation ageing due to
thermal effect.
At the temperatures between 80 C and 140 C it is thought
the consumed life time is doubled for all the temperature
increases of about 6 C.
However, the estimation of the consumed life time due to
insulation ageing only under thermal effects leads to more
optimist results than in reality. This happens because
during the transformer operation some phenomena arise
(electrodynamic, overvoltages) leading to the degradation
of the dielectric properties of the insulation of the
windings and of the oil too.
In this sense the estimation of the influence and
correlation of the consumed life time with the number of
no load contact makings in the mains, the number of the
lightning impulse voltages or generated by switching
processes taking place in the system, leads to more
realistic value of the consumed life time.
Structuring, the objectives of the monitoring system are:
- monitoring of the evolution of the transformer charging
in time;
- storage of the fault cases (short-circuits);
- computation of the temperature of the windings and of
the temperature of the hot spot on the basis of thermal
image;
- protection of the transformer at the putting into
aplication of the ventilation in case of the exceeding of the
fault threshold or disconnecting of the autotransformer in
case of exceeding the failure threshold.
At the programable time intervals the main characteristic
quantities (currents, temperatures) are stored in nonvolatile memory.
In case of a short-circuit generation the instantaneous
values are stored for 2 periods.
The system also computates the consumed life time
resulting the operating time lasted up to the moment of
the overhauling.
The equipment consists mainly of:
- analogical input block;
- primary transducer block: currents and temperatures;

- digital output block: relays and signallings;

- analogical output block;
- supply sources block;
- microcontroller block.
As the monitoring systems are intended to operate within
highly electromagnetic contaminated media it is imposed
the taking of some measures to provide the
electromagnetic compatibility between the digital
equipment and the medium it is fitted.
Fast current variations due to random character of the
load (electric traction), due to fault cases (short-circuits)
or due to switching manoeuvres in the energy system
generate as fast electromagnetical field variations with
high depth of penetration.
In this situation, the electromotive forces are induced
between measuring input wires, between feed input wires,
between measuring input (or feed) wires and digital
ground between the digital ground and equipment frame
connected to earth, into equipments being nearby.
These high value and short-time induced voltages lead as
a rule to interlocking of the operation of the equipment
feed sources, interlocking of the A/D acquisition and
conversion block or even to operation of the processor.
Among the measures to be taken there are:
- galvanic sealing of the inputs, supply and outputs
against the microcontroller;
- electromagnetic screening of the equipment by its
inserting within a metallic case connected to digital
ground and with well defined potential against earth.
Potential definiteness is done either by direct galvanic
connection, in case of low frequency electromagnetic
interferences or by means of a resistor-condenser group in
case of high frequency interferences;
- filtering of the equipment supply voltage.
By means of serial interface, stored data are transmitted to
an IBM-PC compatible computer with the purpose of
archiving and subsequent tabular or graphic analysis.
3. Electric Machine Monitoring System
The proposed system refers mainly to the electric
asynchronous machines with the largest disemination.
The main objectives consist of:
- monitoring of the electric machine charging evolution in
time;
- winding temperature computation on the basis of the
thermal image using the value of the currents through
windings;
- motor protection by disconnecting from the main in case
of exceeding the failure threshold or by signalling in case
of exceeding the attention threshold; thresholds adjustable
by soft.;
- motor protection at the arising of the following damages:
- fading of a phase from the three-phase system
of the supply voltages;
- homopolar current yielding;
- short-circuit protection;
- protection to cutting-out of some phases in rotor
circuit.
As it is known [3] during the operation of the
asynchronous machine with wounded or short-circuited
armature it can arrive the situation when a phase of the

secondary circuit is cut-out this being a failure duty of the

asynchronous machine.
In this situation the machine has the single-phase rotor
and rotates with speed n in the sense of the rotating
magnetic field generated by stator. The magnetic voltage
wave in air gap yielded by single-phase rotor decays into
two rotating waves: a direct wave with speed n 2 in the
sense of rotation of the rotor and a backward wave with
speed - n2.
The slip of the rotor against the direct wave is:

n1 n
n1

(9)

and against the backward wave is:

S'

n2 n
n2

2S 1

(10)

Magnetic field adequate to this wave induces

electromotive voltages of frequency f2=Sf1 into the stator
winding. These electromotive voltages generate currents
of the same frequency which switch on by stator and by
supply network. In case of operation under small slips of
the rotor (1...2)% frequency of the currents induced by
reverse fields is of (49 ...48)Hz and interferences are
generated between the stator phase current of 50Hz
frequency and the current induced by reverse field. These
interference phenomena arise in case of some
unsymmetries of the rotor impedances not only in case of
complete cut of a phase in rotor. Making evident of these
interferences is made by means of the decaying in
harmonics of the stator current wave such as to be able to
determine the amplitude of the harmonics arround the
primal.
In case of a motor with a sound rotor with equal
impedances and without broken bars from the rotor circuit
in the current spectrum harmonics for frequencies (1-2s)f1
and (1+2s)f1 do not appear. In case of a rotor having
broken bars in the rotor circuit the amplitude of the
harmonics of frequencies (1-2s)f1 and (1+2s)f1 increase in
relation with the current primal.
This creates the possibility that, by harmonic analysis

done on a wave shape of the stator currents to foreseen the

major damages from rotor leading to shut-down of the
motor.
Fig.2
Fig.2 shows the harmonic analysis of the stator current in
case of a motor with a healthy rotor.
Monitoring and protection system of the electric machine
includes, thus a full set of protection and diagnosis
functions. Transfer of the data stored for 45 days to an

IBM-PC compatible computer is made by means of serial

interface RS 232.

storage of all the characteristic quantities for 30 ...60 days

in the non-volatile memory, their serial transfer to an
IBM-PC computer will lead to increasing of the reliability
of the power electrotechnical equipments.

4. Conclusions
The common objective followed by monitoring of the
transformer and electric machine operation, as a matter
of fact common to all electric, mechanical or of other
nature equipments is, generally the avoiding of the
accidental drops caused by an irrational utilization or
hidden faults of fabrication. Accidental drops cause
usually very high technological and financial losses
depending on nature of the company energy-fed or driven
equipment (e.g. in ferrous or non-ferrous metallurggy,
electric railways traction, etc.). Determination of the
place where there is an equipment on the life curve
allows the providing measures for replacing and repairing
in due time.
The solving of these matters by means of self-contained,
cheap intelligent systems with microprocessors with

References
[1]CEI 354 Loading guide for oil immersing power
transformers , 1991;
[2]Rankin,D.R.:The industrial application of phase
current analysis to detect rotor winding faults in squirrel
cage induction motors,Power Engineering Journal, April
1995;
[3]Bala,C.:Electric machines,E.D.P. Publisher,
Bucuresti, 1982;
[4]Berca,V.,Munteanu, I.,Popescu, A.:Analysis of
energetic parameters in electrical traction substation
operation, 16th Conference on transportation systems
AUTOMATION
IN
TRANSPORTATION
96,
Split,Croatia-Ancona,Italy, November 27-29, 1996.