Improved Tool for Power Transformer Health

Index Analysis
Juan. P. Lata Diego. P. Chacn-Troya
Carrera de Ingeniera Electrica Carrera de Ingeniera Electrica R. D. Medina
Universidad Politcnica Salesiana Sede Universidad Politcnica Salesiana Instituto de Energa Elctrica -
Cuenca Sede Cuenca Universidad Nacional de San Juan
Cuenca, Ecuador Cuenca, Ecuador rmedina@iee.unsj.edu.ar
jlata@ups.edu.ec dchacon@est.ups.edu.ec

where some test results may not be available; therefore, it is

AbstractThis paper analyses the influence of common test in
power transformers health index assessing. To achieve this
objective a test based sensibility analysis is proposed. To show
results, a study case is proposed, using a set of real scenarios
analyzes the variation of the output (health index) when each input
(oil tests) are varied.
KeywordsPower Transformer, Health Index, Fuzzy Logic,
Sensitivity Analysis
I. INTRODUCTION
necessary to identify the degree of affectation to the assessed
health index value when any input is not available.
The main contribution of this work is to assess the sensitivity
each input over the health index value, one by one, the inputs
were varied and then, the output affectation was estimated. This
sensitivity analysis was applied to the same set of units
presented in [3].
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
A. Health Index Estimation

H ealth Index of a power transformer (PT) is a metric based

on commonly oil test provides information on the overall
condition of the transformer (good, regular, bad) [1]. This
In the studies proposed by Abu Elanien in 2012 [1], Cern
2015 [2], and Medina et. al. 2016 [3] [4], the health status of
power transformers up to 230 kV is evaluated for both TUP
assessment is obtained by weighting the results of diagnostic
units and No TUP, this proposals uses inference system based
tests performed on the dielectric oil of the transformer using
on fuzzy logic - Fuzzy Inference Systems (FIS), the rules are
rules based on expert criteria. Numerically the health index
based on expert criteria.
value varies between zero and one; zero corresponds to units in
Fuzzy logic is a multi-valued logic that allows mathematical
excellent condition, and one is for units that are at the end of
representation of uncertainty and ambiguity providing formal
reliable life [1] y [2].
tools for its treatment. Consists on replacing numerical values
In previous papers tools for the evaluating power
by membership functions (linguistic functions) that can take
transformers health index (HI) up to 230 kV were presented, in
values such as good, bad, etc. Figure 1 presents schematically
[2] a model which considers 2-FAL content in HI is developed,
the diffuse inference system proposed in [3].
and in [3] and [4] authors substitute degree of polymerization
(DP) instead of 2-FAL. Both proposals uses common test:
moisture, dielectric strength, acidity, dissipation factor,
dissolved gas analysis and degree of polymerization, a detailed
description of these tests and their acceptance ranges are
presented in [5] and [6].
In the asset management context, health index allows a
practical and intuitive way to priotice unit actions or
investment. Units owner or park administrator must store test
results and analyze trends, but HI assessing losses it advantages
in two situations: 1) when the unit oil is filtered or substituted
Figure 1. Schematic of the diffuse inference system (FIS) for the
and, 2) for units constructed with thermally upgraded paper evaluation of the health index of power transformers up to 230kV. Source: [3].
(TUP). There are no agreement respect to furanic production
due degradation of TUP. This situation is improved by means Each of the input variables of the FIS is divided into several
of using degree of polymerization as was proposed in [3]. states, which are characterized with membership functions
This paper presents an analysis of the weight of each of the according permissible ranges, entries correspond to the tests
inputs used in [3]. This was done considering real scenarios,

This work was supported by Energy Research Team at Universidad Politcnica
Salesiana Sede Cuenca.
J. P Lata and D. P Chacn are with Electrical Engineering Department and
Energy research group GIE at Universidad Politcnica Salesiana (UPS), Calle
Vieja 6-20 y Elia Liut, Cuenca - Ecuador, EC 010102, (e-mail:
jlatac@ups.edu.ec, dchacon@ups.edu.ec).
R. D. Medina is with Instituto de Energa Elctrica IEE UNSJ - CONICET,
Av. Libertador San Martn 1109 O, San Juan - Argentina, AR5400, (e-mail:
rmedina@iee.unsj.edu.ar).

978-1-5090-6363-5/17/$31.00 2017 IEEE

described in [5], while standard ranges were taken from IEEE Using this logic, according to the number of mentions the
C57.152-2013 [7]. inputs that would have more importance on the method, then
The evaluation of the health index is done by combining the DP and TDCG are the most important, however, through this
membership functions, and expert criteria proposed in [1], logic it is not possible to quantify the influence of each input.
which were modified in [3]. Finally, proceed to de-fuzzify the
result obtained in the FIS by means of the centroid method, and 2) Alter one entre at the time and calculate the health index
obtain a value that represents the physical state of the Through the process of altering the FIS inputs one by one,
transformer, in a range that goes from zero (new transformers we sought to quantify the extent to which the numerical value
or in good condition), to one (very deteriorated who have (crisp) of the health index changes, as a result of moving the
reached their reliable end of life). Table I shows the database of value of each of the inputs along their functions of membership.
the 16 transformers used in the study carried out in [3] as well In a first step, we proceed to obtain health index values,
as the results obtained after their analysis. varying only the humidity, keeping intact the other input values,
and then proceed to return to moisture at its original value and
TABLE I perform exactly the same process until completing the six FIS
DATABASE AND RESULTS OBTAINED WITH THE METHODOLOGY
PROPOSED IN [3]
entries, this process is show in Figure 2.
Dissipati To shorten the sampling universe, the values of the input
Water Acidity Health Index
Trafo Year
Voltage
Content [mg BDV
on TDCG
DP (proposed variables, xn, resulting in a degree of membership equal to 0.75,
[kV] Factor [ppm]
[ppm] KOH/g]
[%]
method) 0.50, and 0.25 were taken as interest points.
1 1973 138/230 3.000 0.04 60 0.5 532 644.539 0.484 M
2 1978 69/138 11.000 0.02 60 0.0125 511 566.701 0.263 G
3 1979 138/230 5.000 0.01 47 0.023 97 581.519 0.11 VG
4 1981 138/138 9.700 0.01 44 0.013 596 986.164 0.3 G
5 1981 138/138 10.000 0.01 49 0.0105 778 886.606 0.439 M
6 1981 138/138 10.510 0.01 44 0.0118 628 814.147 0.300 G
7 1981 138/138 11.200 0.01 52 0.0147 740 853.067 0.378 M
8 1988 138/240 11.990 0.01 53 0.0297 1080 837.728 0.515 M
9 1988 138/240 9.900 0.01 51 0.0248 388 932.711 0.166 VG
10 2008 13.8/230 9.890 0.01 54 0.0161 176.1 973.652 0.110 VG
11 2008 13.8/230 9.000 0.01 47 0.0066 454.5 973.652 0.210 VG
12 2013 138/138 12.390 0.01 41 0.0084 234.7 997.923 0.150 VG
13 1986 13.8/69 3.000 0.01 64 0.025 707 905.022 0.300 G
14 1989 13.8/69 17.000 0.02 47 0.014 590 874.391 0.300 G
15 1989 13.8/69 19.000 0.01 47 0.024 143 849.844 0.110 VG
16 1976 13.8/69 20.000 0.06 23 0.3 1533 333.594 0.775 B
Where: VG= Very Good; G=Good; M=Moderate; B=Bad; VB= Very Bad.

III. CASE STUDY PRESENTATION

In the development of a valid logic that allows to identify the
degree of influence (relative weight) that each input of the
methodology proposed in [3], has on its exit (health index),
several options were studied.

1) Exploring the rules of expert judgment.

By working directly on the expert criterion, by counting the Figure 2. . Process by which the health index is calculated for each variant
number of times each input is mentioned within the 80 rules, The list of the values of the points of interest was entered one
we sought to find some relationship that allows identifying the by one in the FIS, keeping as previously mentioned, the values
relative weight that each input has on the methodology. of the other FIS entries were invariable, obtaining a value of the
After the exploration, the most often named input is degree health index for each one of the variations, as shown in the
of polymerization, followed by total content of dissolved gases example of Table III.
(TDCG), then for dielectric strength (BDV). It is also observed
that the remaining parameters have no greater difference in the TABLE III
CALCULATION OF THE H.I. WHEN THE HUMIDITY VARIES.
number of times they are named among themselves, as can be Water Acidity
BDV Dissipation TDCG Health
seen in Table II. Content [mg
[Kv] Factor [%] [ppm]
DP
Index
[ppm] KOH/g]
21.25 0.04 60 0.5 532 644.539 0.483
TABLE II 22.5 0.04 60 0.5 532 644.539 0.489
COUNTING OF THE NUMBER OF OCCASIONS IN WHICH EACH 23.75 0.04 60 0.5 532 644.539 0.494
INPUT APPEARS WITHIN THE EXPERT CRITERIA RULES With the approximation of how each input was modified and
D TDC Water Acidit BD Dissipation
the way in which each variant is evaluated, the remaining inputs
P G Content y V Factor were entered into the FIS, obtaining a total of 92 inputs for each
#
80 79 48 48 56 50 of the 16 transformers, obtaining this way a universe of 1472
Times
health index data. The evaluation of the effect that produced the
variation of the entries was done in two ways:
A. Total state changes generated.
With the universe of variations in health index obtained,
quantify the number health index changed state. For example,
if a transformer had a health index considered "Very Good," it
was counted how many times it changed from that state,
obtaining the results shown in Figure 3.
similar physical conditions, therefore, if there had been a
considerable variation of the criterion obtained in Table IV,
respect to separate analysis in groups, each group would be
considered as having its own behavior, which would trigger a
much deeper and less generalized analysis. This results are
shown in Figure 5b.
TABLE IV
SUMMARY OF RANGE OF EACH INPUT OF THE 16 UNITS OF THE
UNIVERSE OF STUDY

Figure 3. Number of change of H.I. state that causes each of the entries.

DP causes most changes in state, around 29% of the total

state changes, in the other hand, the variable that generated the
least changes was the dissipation factor with 10%.
The above results show a measure of the changes generated
by changing the inputs one by one. However, the crisp HI value
variation is not measured . That is, only state changes were
quantified, but not how much the health index is changed from
its original values.

B. Measure of variation of health index
The disadvantage of the previous section was solved
measuring the displacement of the crisp value of the calculated
health index respect to the original value when each input is
varied. Considering the universe of data is relatively large and
in order to facilitate the analysis, authors chose to use the
measure of the total dispersion range (Range) generated by
modifying each input, Figure 4 illustrates this concept, this
measure is the obtained using equation (1). The values of
Range are shown in Table IV
3) Sensitivity of the method to the absence of one of the
inputs.
Given the possibility of the absence of some of the input data
of the method proposed in [3], due to the lack of data from
laboratory tests, the need arises to verify that this is the case
with the health index before this possibility.

(1)

a)

Figure 4. Obtaining the Range Health Index.

Then, calculating the arithmetic mean of the results of each

inputs, results are obtained. The variable that generated the
greatest Range (dispersion) value is DP, followed by TDCG,
whereas the variable with the lowest dispersion was dissipation
factor, this is presented in Figure 5a.
Performing a similar analysis to transformers separated into
groups by HI state, "very good", "good", "moderate", "bad" and
"very bad", trend of Table IV was maintained.
It was necessary to separate the transformers in groups, since it
is assumed that transformers of the same group will possess
b)
Figure 5. Scatter charts of Health Index: a) General, b) Transformers
separated into groups by state.
To verify situation, health index of each transformer was
evaluated, zeroing one of the inputs at a time, obtaining a total
of 6 values of health index per transformer. Then with the
values of HI Resulting, the values of were obtained, making
use of Equation 2.
 (2)
The same analysis was performed for all transformers
belonging to the study universe, Table V presents this results. It
is observed that, in the case of zeroing the DP variable, in all
cases the health index became "Very bad", generating an
average variation () of the HI higher than 0.6.
Reviewing the other averages of , it was observed that the
variable that follows in influence to the DP is the BDV with a
mean of variation of 0.165, followed by TDCG with 0.150. The
other variables affect the resulting health index as expected, but
to a degree of one hundredths or thousandths, a change that was
insignificant.
TABLE V
HEALTH INDEX RESULTING FROM ZEROING YOUR ENTRIES ONE
BY ONE.
IV. CONCLUSION
To perform a sensitivity analysis on a fuzzy system is
complex because a system of these characteristics does not have
a mathematical equation that relates its inputs directly.
However, through the proposed test method, it has been
possible to arrive at quite logical conclusions about the
importance of each one of the inputs of the methodology
developed in [3], as opposed to its exit (Health Index).
After reviewing Figures 3, 5a, 5b and Tables II, IV, V it was
observed that, as expected, the most important variable in the
health index analysis is DP, this conclusion is already logical
which, having a direct relationship with the physical state of the
insulation paper [8], this variable is extremely important in any
analysis of the health of power transformers.
TDCG is the next in influence, this parameter has greater
influence within the method since its appearance is the result of
the accumulation of several possible internal faults (thermal [9]
or electrical), however in the analysis it is observed that the
affectation that this produces is much smaller than the one
produced by the DP.
The BDV is placed in third place, since if the insulating oil
loses its dielectric properties it would be assumed that the unit
is in serious risk during an overload or a short circuit. However,
it was observed that the methodology does not consider
mentioned risk properly.
After the three parameters above, we found that the variables
that follow them in importance are: oil moisture, acidity and
dissipation factor, that although they are quite representative
parameters and strongly linked: a high acidity ambient
represents an impaired state of health, since this is a product of
the degradation of the transformer core and contamination in
oil; high acidity in combination with a high humidity, would
trigger a possible oxidation of the core; high humidity reduce
the dielectric capacities of the oil.
Therefore in extreme cases, it is possible to leave out one of
the input variables: dissipation factor, humidity or acidity
without affecting that health index assessing significantly.
From all of the above, it is concluded that the expert criterion
proposed in [1] that serves as the starting point for the analysis
carried out in [2] and [3], is still perfectible, and it is advisable
to carry out a review of its rules. In order to include rules and
weights that relate important topics as the combination of
moisture, acidity and dissipation factor, as well as a better
evaluation of the BDV, all in order to improve the proposed
methodology.
V. REFERENCES
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