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Looking at structure of the electrical network we see that power transformers are an elementary asset in the network grid.
Their main role (besides others) is to step-up and step-down the voltage for transmission purposes. You can see the
importance of an uninterrupted operation as an unexpected breakdown can have a disastrous outcome. Furthermore power
transformers are not stock items readily available to power utilities in the event of a breakdown. Maintenance and revisions
have to be planned way in advance.

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A power transformer is a quite complex asset consisting of various components which will be discussed in more detail later.
Several components can influence the performance and operation heavily. Minor defects can lead to breakdowns after some
time. There are a lot of components which have to be maintained frequently in order to guarantee trouble free operation.

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Looking into different components let’s start with the high voltage bushings. A bushing is the component to feed the electrical
conductor, who which is on high voltage potential, through the grounded transformer tank. Furthermore they have to reduce
the electric field strength from the high voltage parts to the surrounding grounded parts.

Depending on the insulation technology (resin-based or oil-based impregnation) you can see a list of common defects above.
The reason for all those defects will be discussed in detail at a later stage.

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The internal insulation system in liquid immersed transformers is consisting of highly refined insulation oil and cellulose in
form of dry insulation paper, pressboard and sometimes (selected) natural wood. Various influence such as thermal, chemical
ageing, mechanical or electrical stress and even protection problems can impact the expected lifetime throughout a
transformer's lifecycle. See a few common reason above which will be discussed as well later.

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Connection leads establish a connection between tapped windings of each phase to the tap changer. Contact problems and
mechanical deformations are possible faults.

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An On-Load Tap Changer is used for voltage regulation by keeping the secondary voltage (distribution level) stable in case of
rising and dropping power consumption. As it is impractical to switch off the transformer every time the voltage needs to be
regulated, the tap-changing has to be performed without interruption (make-before-break contacts) under load conditions,
which gives them the name On-Load Tap Changer. The tap-changer is often placed in a separated compartment inside or
attached to the power transformers main tank.

OLTCs may be found in high voltage windings and low voltage windings (mainly U.S.) and depends on customer
requirements. Most common reasons for problems are listed above which are discussed later.

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Windings in power transformer consists of conductor (copper or often aluminum) isolated with insulation paper. Single
windings are placed concentrically around each limb or leg of the transformer core where the low voltage winding is located
at the inside and the high voltage winding at the outside. Radial spacers and barriers allow the circulation of insulation oil
between the winding, while barriers also prevent the creation of chains of loose fibers (due to aging of the paper insulation)
which would lead to higher conductivity and possible break-downs of the insulation between windings.

See above a quick list of common defects related to transformer windings.

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Power transformers have iron cores made of stacked laminated steel. The laminations are coated with insulating materials to
reduce eddy currents and to provide resistance to corrosion. Besides mechanical deformation, a floating core ground and
shorted core laminates are possible reasons for problems with transformer cores.

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Transformer failures can be catastrophic. They can cause huge power outages, a loss of selling energy opportunity,
environmental impacts and big costs for repair work and rebuilding.

Breakdowns of power transformers can have serious consequences such as hazardous fire (examples above) due to the
high temperatures and flammable components (e.g. insulation oil). Further damage in the substation can be a consequence
causing major damage and interruption of the energy supply.

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A few examples show the result of tremendous transformer breakdowns “post mortem”.

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All following examples were part of measurements and services performed by OMICRON during the last couple of years.

First example reveals a breakdown of a low voltage winding in phase a1 / X1 after removing the high voltage winding of the
same phase. The defect could be detected earlier by performing winding resistance measurement.
Reasons for defects of the winding can be overvoltage's or high short circuit currents, which sometimes do not influence the
performance initially. Damaged areas (shorted or interrupted) cause higher losses in the winding and lead to an increase of
the oil temperature at this particular spot. This often have an influence on the cooling and insulating capability.

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In the second example a high concentration of hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4). ethane (CH6) and other could be observed
from the dissolved gas analysis. The winding resistance measurement performed subsequently showed high resistance in
phase c1 / X3 compared to the other phases. Opening the transformer and taking out the active part in a workshop showed a
breakdown in one of the parallel conductors of this particular phase.

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Zoomed picture of previous defect of parallel connection lead in phase c1 / X3.

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Another fault investigation on a 30MVA transformer has shown a defect in the On-Load Tap Changer (OLTC) in this third
example. High concentration of methane C2H4 (Ethylene) and C2H6 (Ethane) could be observed by an earlier dissolved gas
analysis (DGA) which leads to the conclusion of severe overheating and arcing.

A mechanical breakdown caused a displacement of contacts and cracks in the OLTC compartment, which led to heavy arcing
in the tap changer, and ingress of dissolved gasses in the main tank which led to high gas concentration in the transformer
oil.

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Zoomed picture of previous shown defects in the On-Load Tap Changer (OLTC) and damages in the compartment.

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In the fourth example a 123kV RBP bushing of phase B / H2 showed high dissipation/power factor in phase B / H2 compared
to their neighboring phases.

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Above pictures shows the dismantled bushing with the porcelain insulator removed in a workshop. Water ingress – through a
defective gasket – caused high partial discharge activity along the surface of the paper insulation. Luckily the bushing could
been taken out and replaced with a spare bushing relatively quickly before a major breakdown happened.

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Power transformers have to suffer a lot of periodic or continuous forces, such as thermal stress, electrical stress, aging and
mechanical stress (shortened by the abbreviation TEAM).

Thermal stress: The temperature rises in the case of overload. Many temperature shifts lead to premature aging of the
paper insulation and pressboard
Electrical stress: Besides nominal voltage the insulation is also stressed by over-voltage due to electrical faults
Ambient stress: Includes moisture, aggressive and reactive chemicals (gas, acids) and foreign particles (metal parts,
carbonized particles,...)
Mechanical stress: Short-circuit stresses on windings, transportation damage and seismic activities can lead to winding
deformation or collapse

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As we have seen from the previous examples there are particular components which generally are the cause of breakdowns.
A trend can be seen from the graph above where mainly windings, tap-changers, and bushings are the major reasons for
outages.

Abstract: In this contribution the results of a failure data survey of 20 utilities in Germany, Swiss, Austria and the Netherlands
based on a newly developed questionnaire are presented. The investigated transformer population covers more than 23800
unit-years and reveals a failure rate of 0.3% for 110kV and 0.6% for 220kV and 380kV for major failures shows considerable
failure statistic for a transformer age below 30 years. Tap changer and windings are with one third each the main components
leading to major failures.

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Another study from the CIGRE workgroup WG A2.37 was presented in their brochure No. 261. The failure ratio is slightly
different but in generally the same trend can be observed that defects on winding, tap changer and bushings are the main
reasons for transformer failures.

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Looking deeper in the external defects of those bushing failures it can be seen that around 30% have fire and 11%
explosion/burst as a consequence which can heavily affect the environment in a transformers substation.

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Excerpt from brochure: “The calculated failure rates for substation and generator step-up transformers, as well as the
combined group of transformers, are given in the diagram above. It is important to note that the number of failures of
generator step-up units and of units in voltages classes above 500 kV, as well as the population of these two categories, was
low. The calculated failure rates should thus be considered with caution. The overall failure rate of substation, generator step-
up and the combined group of transformers were all within 1%. Only generator step units in the volt-age class 300kV to
500kV exceeded 1% failure rate”

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As previously discussed power transformers have an estimated “lifetime”. After several years of operation maintenance is of
vital importance and can drastically increase the performance and lifespan. Lack of maintenance can result in consecutive
defects are short down the lifetime easily. Regular service and maintenance finally pay off to avoid huge cost effective
defects.

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As every asset in the electrical network, power transformers have an expected lifetime. Negative influences such as
thermal, ambient, mechanical or electrical stress provoke serious reduction of the lifetime.
In order to prevent before mentioned breakdowns/outages of power transformers regular or periodic maintenance is
vital.

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One of possible measure for an extension of the assets expected lifetime can be periodic testing and/or monitoring which are
explained in the following slides.

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Offline tests have the advantage of additional electrical stress and further diagnostic tests which cannot be performed
at the energized power transformer. Obvious disadvantage is that the asset has to be de-energized for the time of the
tests.
Online test – power transformer under electrical load – can provide additional information about problems under
operating conditions. Disadvantages are covered in the next slide.

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Temporary monitoring has the advantage of often providing enough data about the analysis of the assets condition with
minimum effort for installation of the measurement setup. As an example: pre-installed terminal adapters at the bushing
measurement tap allow quick partial discharge measurements at any time. Biggest advantage: no de-energization
required for condition analysis. Disadvantage: deterioration of the asset condition within short-time cannot be
detected.

Continuous monitoring requires permanent installation of measurement setup often done with the commissioning of the
asset. Thereby permanent analyzation of parameter such as dissipation factor or partial discharge can prevent outages.
Threshold levels has to be set for a suitable alarming within time. Disadvantage: higher efforts and costs than for offline
testing or temporary monitoring.

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Above chart shows a rough overview of faulty components and common detectable faults over possible measurement
methods.

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