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STATE-OF-THE ART PAPER

TRANSFORMER TECHNOLOGY
STATE-OF-THE ART AND TRENDS
OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
R. Baehr, former Chairman of Study Committee 12 (Transformers)

1. INTRODUCTION Environmental and economical considerations

challenge the transformer industry to think about
new technical concepts using non-conventional
The transformer is a mature technical product
materials for the insulation system and for the
and its life story is closely linked to the history of the
windings.
application of electrical energy starting in the last
decades of the 19th century. Based on just one
fundamental physical principle, the induction law,
the basic design features never changed since
then. Inspite of that there is no other component
with such high variety of applications and
parameters. Transformers are needed to feed most
of the equipment and apparatus of our daily use
which form our personal and public technical
environment as well as high power industrial
equipment for diverse applications. Power and
voltage ratings range from VAs to GVAs and mV to
MV. Owed to such flexibility the transformer is the
most important link for transmission and distribution
of electrical energy from the producer to the
consumer. This paper will concentrate mainly on
power transformers and their application.

Whereas the basic design and the principle

elements of the transformer – core, windings,
insulation system – remained more or less
unchanged there was a tremendous improvement
of the specific design characteristics and properties
in the past. Power ratings and voltage level
increased by several orders of magnitude (Fig.1)
while related dimensions and weight as well as
losses and sound level decreased dramatically
(Fig.2). These improvements were achieved by the
development and application of advanced
materials and higher sophisticated design tools.

In the last two decades the main concern was

focussed on higher efficiency, higher service
reliability and more economic solutions. Hence
development was concentrating on operation,
maintenance and life management and the
necessary tools and equipment for condition
monitoring and diagnosis. FIGURE 1 : Development of rated voltage and power.

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FIGURE 2 : Change of characteristics with time.
Example : 200 MVA/220 kV Transformer.
TABLE 1 : Loss evaluation figures of transmission transformers
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2. STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS
OF DEVELOPMENT
During the last century which might be called
“the century of the engineers” the pride of
engineers was to strive for the best technical
solution. Now times have changed and engineers
must deal with economics if they want to act
successfully in the world wide market.
Deregulation and privatisation of the electrical
energy supply industry influenced the direction of
development considerably.
Concerning the transformer for a long time
economical considerations were limited to
purchase price and loss evaluation with
depreciation figures based on rather long pay-back
period, say 20 years or more. Since low loss by
physical law requires more material high loss
evaluation figures can compensate for higher first
cost in the total cost evaluation when purchasing a
new transformer. Evaluation figures vary in a wide
range reflecting the local conditions regarding
availability of capital, interest rate, depreciation
time, source and cost of primary energy, loading
characteristic etc. Table 1 presents a comparison of
loss evaluation figures of several countries with quite
different economic conditions and not all of them
look very reasonable, but they are of eminent
influence on the design and cost of the product. To
give an example : if availability of capital is the
paramount parameter it is not reasonable, but
misleading for the designer to specify high loss
evaluation figures. On the other hand : if the
purchaser’s decision is based on life cycle cost low
losses may offer the best result.
In the past most of the parameters were
regarded as fix during the lifetime of the
transformer, but to day quick and unexpected
changes of market conditions must be taken into
consideration which makes the evaluation more
complicated.
The rapid decrease of pay-back time as a
consequence of shorter estimated service time in
some parts of the world seems to be a most
important change. By this change significant
technical decisions are influenced, beginning with
the design, the choice of material and ending up
with changed maintenance strategies. Furthermore
designing for shorter lifetime and less maintenance
may require more and better monitoring and
diagnostic tools. To run no increased unknown risks
improved methods to estimate condition and life
expectancy of the individual transformer have to
be developed. An indispensable precondition for
USD/kW. reliable lifetime estimation is the availability and
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evaluation of all accessible service data – in short :

new approaches and new methods must be
developed and introduced in the design as well as
in service.
To cope with these economic demands R & D
activities are shifting from technical improvement to
low price products and from product development
to cost reduction activities. There is a danger that
promising new projects with prospective long pay-
back period are postponed or neglected in favour
of activities which promise good results in short time.
In fact the progress in the product development has
slowed down already in recent years.

3. DEVELOPMENT OF
THE TECHNOLOGY
The impressive progress of transformer
technology in recent decades is based on two
factors : improved characteristics of material,
especially core material, and development of
advanced design tools.

3.1 Core Material

The decisive factor for the impressive reductions
in weight and losses was the continuous
improvement of the core material. Starting with soft
iron wire more than hundred years ago at the very
beginning of the transformer age hot rolled sheets
of Fe-Si alloy were in use until the mid of the last
century. The most important step towards low loss
and high saturable material was the invention of
cold rolled grain oriented transformer sheets. By
continous reduction of thickness, improved grain
size and orientation, surface polishing, scratching
and application of controlled mechanical stress the
specific losses were reduced substantially (Fig.3).
In parallel to the development of low loss
material the core design was changed in order to
make best use of the improved properties. The use of
advanced computer programs allows the thorough
analysis of the magnetic field distribution in the core
and the optimisation of the shape and configuration
of the laminations especially in the joints.
The progress in core material and design did not
only affect the no-load loss, but was most
beneficial for the optimisation of the transfomer as
a whole including dimensions, weight, load loss,
efficiency and noise, not to forget the secondary
effects, e.g. cooling plant, space on site, transport
conditions and last but not least all kinds of
economical benefits.
FIGURE 3 : Historical review of core steel development.
In spite of strong efforts non crystalline core
material – though of considerably lower specific
losses – was not able to replace the advanced
grain oriented sheets. The application of
amorphous steel tapes is limited to distribution
transformers, specially to smaller rated single-phase
units where wound cores are advantageous.
Extreme brittleness, mechanical sensitivity, cutting
and stacking problems due to the thickness in the
range of only 20 to 30 µm and the necessity of
annealing in the magnetic field after the
manufacturing process seem to be prohibitive for
the application in power transformers. Most of the
advantage of the excellent loss values at low
induction is compensated by the higher stacking
factor and the lower saturation point where losses
increase rapidly. Total cost evaluations demonstrate
that there is only a small segment characterised by
high loss evaluation figures where these
transformers might be competitive.
Under the pressure of stronger environmental
requirements audible noise is of concern. Since the
major source of transformer noise is magnetostriction
of the core lamination steel manufacturers started to

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develop material with higher Si content upto 6.5 %
where magnetostriction disappears. When
produced in a conventional manner by rolling Fe-
material with more than 4 % Si is extremely brittle. Only
a rapid quenching process can produce ductile
material which can easily be handled by the trans-
former manufacturer. However high temperature
annealing is required to generate a texture which
guarantees magnetic properties comparable to
those of normal grain oriented sheets of best quality.
Recent information say that optimum power loss is
achieved at a thickness of about 0.1 mm. The
saturation polarisation is said to be 1.8 Tesla.
Latest development work is concentrating on
3 % Si material with low magnetostriction, but
without sacrificing the favourable loss properties of
most advanced Fe-Si material.
3.2 Conductor Material
Compared to the evolution of core material the
progress in the area of conductor material was only
marginal as far as conventional conductors are
concerned. Nevertheless the introduction of
continuously transposed conductors (CTC)
influenced the winding design essentially and
reduced the additional losses caused by eddy and
circulating currents. In the past the broader
application of CTCs was limited by the mechanical
weakness of the bunch of single strands, but the
problem was solved by the introduction of epoxy
coating of the strands and curing of the bundle
during the drying process of the winding. Further
improvement of the mechanical strength was
achieved by additional hardening procedures
during the manufacturing process of the strands
which result in a controlled increase of the yield
point of the copper conductor.
For the application in LV-windings CTCs without
additional insulation of the bunch are in use which
offer excellent cooling properties without
jeopardising the insulation safety.
Of future interest is the development of
superconducting material. While the first steps
towards superconducting transformers using low
temperature superconductors (LTSC) were not very
promising due to the high demand of cooling
power, the discovery of high temperature
superconductors (HSTC) reanimated activities in this
field. The critical temperature of these materials is
above 80 K. Therefore liquid nitrogen (77 K) can be
used as coolant which reduces the expenditure for
the cooling plant by one order of magnitude. At
present conductors based on ceramic material
embedded in silver can be manufactured at a
16 E L E C T R A N°198 - October 2001
length of several hundred meters – a precondition
for the use in transformers. Ductile Bi-based
superconductors which offer better workability and
which do not need be embedded are in the scope
of new development programs.
However the commercial application of
superconductors in transformers will depend of
further steps towards lower conductor price.
3.3 Insulation Material
It is highly remarkable that new insulation systems
based on plastics and synthetic fluids were not able
to substitute cellulosic material, i.e. paper,
transformer board, (laminated) wood and mineral
oil as the predominating insulation system for the
majority of power transformers. This is due to the
high reliability, long lifetime and of course the
comparatively low price of the oil-cellulose system.
Only under stronger environmental conditions
(fire hazard, contamination of the ground water
supply in residential and high populated areas) the
combination of polymere films and SF 6 gas was
introduced as an alternative.
3.4 Advanced Design Tools
and Manufacturing Processes
The development of powerful computers and
mathematical methods and models allowed more
precise prediction of electrical and mechanical
stresses including heat transfer and vibrations.
Advanced calculation methods (Finite
Elements) are used to create 2 – or 3 – dimensional
field plots and to optimise the design of insulation
structures and to check losses and vibrations in
structural parts of complicated geometry (Fig. 4) as
well as short circuit capability and thermal
performance.
The voltage distribution under transient
conditions can be determined by calculation in the
time and frequency domain for different wave
shapes and complex winding arrangements.
As a consequence dimensions and tolerances
could be reduced substantially. At the same time
reliability was improved and test and service failure
rate considerably reduced.
Manufacturing of power transformers is still
mainly hand work done by skilled workers. Attempts
to introduce automatic core stacking and winding
processes were not successful due to the high
variety of parameters and the low repetition rate of
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identical units. Nevertheless tools and processes

improved considerably with time. In particular
vapor-phase-drying under constant pressure, pre-
assembly of insulation structures, use of advanced
connecting techniques and automatic control of
the final drying and oil filling process were the most
important steps to cut throughput time to a
minimum, which is regarded as the key factor of
improved quality, delivery time and cost.

4. NEW DESIGN CONCEPTS

4.1 Gas Insulated
Transformers
In the late fifties the idea came up for the first
time to use gas as insulation and coolant in the
transformer design after SF6 had proven its excellent
dielectric properties in other HV equipment. First
transformer applications were indoor distribution
transformers in public buildings because of smaller
dimensions, nonflammability and non-explosive
behaviour.
Mainly in Japan and its heavy populated urban
districts was there a strong demand for the
extension of the HV transmission systems into large
cities. Therefore the rating and the voltage range of
gas-insulated transformers was increased step by
step. In 1991 the first 300 MVA/275 KV gas insulated
transformer was put into service. Further research
resulted in a 500 kV prototype transformer which
passed all tests successfully. The final aim is to realise
500 kV gas insulated transformers of 1000 MVA class
for undergound stations in urban districts.
For small rated gas insulated distribution
transformers SF 6 is used for both cooling and
insulation. Due to the fact that gases have much
smaller thermal conductivity and heat capacity, the
high efficient cooling effect of evaporation of liquids
is used for gas insulated transformers of large rating.
Perfluorcarbon (C8F15O) is a prefered coolant
because of its electrical compatibility with SF 6 and
its excellent physical and chemical properties.
The solid insulation is made of PPS (polypheny-
lenesulfide), PEN (polyphenylenenaphtalate) or PET
(polyethyleneterephtalate) film.
4.2 Superconducting
Transformers
In spite of the fact that the efficiency of power
transformers is extremely high – more than 99.5 % for
large units of modern design – there was always a
FIGURE 4 : Vibration mode of a 3-limb-core.
strong demand to decrease the amount of load loss
which normally is roughly 3 to 4 times higher than the
no-load loss. An early approach was to run the
transformer with conventional copper conductors at
a temperature of approximately –150 °C. Under such
conditions the ohmic resistance of copper is only 30 %
of the 75°C value. In the beginning eighties a team at
Westinghouse carried out a thorough feasibility study
on the use of superconducting windings in large
power transformers. The result of the study was that
the superconducting transformer exhibits very
attractive properties. Only the problem of recovering
to superconductivity from normal conductivity after a
fault could not be solved conveniently.
In the meantime several manufacturers started
development work and designed, constructed and
tested prototype transformers with windings made
from low temperature superconductors (LTSC) at
ratings upto 1000 kVA. The service temperature is
4.2 K, the temperature of liquid He. Most technical
problems were solved conveniently, but the
expense for cooling and thermal insulation was
rather high and prohibitive for the economical
competitive application.

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The discovery of high temperature supercon-
ductivity (HTSC) of some ceramic alloys and the
development of suitable multi filament wires of
adequate length revived research work and stud-
ies of large power transformers using superconduc-
tive windings at a service temperature of 77 K, the
temperature of liquid N2. At this temperature level
the expense for cooling decreases by one oder of
magnitude.
Two lines of development are pursued. A more
futuristic approach presents the design of a ring-
shaped coreless transformer. With the more
conventional approach only the windings are
made from superconductive material and housed
in a separate cryostat at the relevant low
temperature necessary to maintain the supercon-
ductivity of the windings. The core is built and
cooled in a conventional manner. Prototypes up to
10 MVA were designed, smaller units were
manufactured and tested in the laboratory and in
service. Special attention is payed to traction
transformers because of light weight and low losses,
both beneficial for high speed trains.
Recent studies concerning the total cost of large
HSTC transformers in comparison with conventional
units are promising provided the progress to
develop conductors of lower AC losses and lower
cost continues and loss evaluation figures remain at
the current level. The inherent fault limiting feature
combined with reduced transformer reactance
and the overload capability which is limited only by
FIGURE 5 : Site installation of 3x1000 MVA / 1000kV
prototype transformer.
18 E L E C T R A N°198 - October 2001
the refrigerator capacity permit optimum design
and utilisation of the transmission system as a whole.
Environmental compatibility and nonflammability
are additional arguments to continue
development. Nevertheless there are increasing
restraints in view of short term economical
considerations.
4.3 Other Non-conventional
Designs
The application of cable technologies opens
new possibilities to increase the functionality of
transformers. The use of conventional PE cable as
stator winding allows to combine power generation
and first step of transformation in one unit instead of
using a conventional generator connected to a
separate GSU-transformer. A voltage level of 220 kV
and more is said to be practicable. As a second
option the cable technology is used for dry-type
power transformers where oil-free, non-flammable,
non-explosive transformers are required.
A special technology for on-site assembly of
large power transformers was developed for
applications where close restrictions in transport
weight and dimensions do not allow conventional
transportation to site. This technology includes
specific processing of the prefabricated windings,
core stacking, assembly, drying and final testing
on site.
While the development towards higher ratings
and higher voltage stagnated during the last two
decades Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is
planning to begin commercial operation of
Japan’s first 1 000 kV transmission sytems in the
beginning of the 21st century. Prototype
transformers of 3 000 MVA / 1 000 kV were already
designed, produced, delivered and tested under
service conditions in a field test station (Fig.5).
5. VISION OF FUTURE TRENDS
Study Committee 12 recently started an inquiry
on the future needs concerning the application
and development of transformers in view of the
important changes in the energy supply market. The
majority of responses from different parts of the
world, but mainly from western industrialised
countries was focused apart from the a.m. trends of
“hardware” development on “soft” topics as :
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● the impact of decentralised power genera-
tion on transformers
● reliability and maintenance for more eco-
nomic usage of assets
● lack of qualified engineering staff.
The effect of decentralisation will presumably
strengthen the tendency towards smaller rated
transformers and probably decrease the number of
transformation steps in the grid. Where improved
power quality and fast reaction to disturbances in
the network are required electronic devices may
replace the classic transformer, e.g. FACTS,
electronic voltage regulators, variable shunt
reactors, electronic tap changers etc. By this the
total number of transformers could be reduced in
the future.
In the past many countries applied the n + 1
philosophy to ensure safe energy supply. In view of
the stronger competition of privatised suppliers and
due to the open, deregulated market the safety
philosophy is reconsidered. The aim is to replace
spare capacity by preventive condition based
maintenance to safeguard the same level of
reliability. Modern monitoring and communication
tools and the development of high sophisticated
evaluation methods – e.g. learning systems, fuzzy
logic – offer the opportunity for more reliable
statistical and individual forecasting of the
remaining life of transformers in various scenarios
and for supporting decisions on service alternatives
and optimised maintenance strategies. The
development of such tools requires close
cooperation between manufacturers and
customers and the success will mostly depend on
the availability and quality of data ; hence an open-
book-policy of both parties will be indispensable.
Learning expert systems will support the efforts
for reliability and safe supply, but it is questionable if
such systems can totally replace the experience of
qualified engineers. Therefore the management
must take care of adequate well educated and
experienced engineering capacity. As a
contribution to the education of engineers Study
Committee 12 is going to offer tutorials on specific
topics of transformer technology and operations. ■

REFERENCES
n CIGRE WG 12.20 “Economics of transformer management”, MoM Budapest meeting, June 13, 1999 ; internal paper.
n D. Bonmann, “Superconducting transformers - benefits of upgrading and future electrical networks”, Key note
CIGRE SC12 Power Transformer Colloquium, Budapest 14-16 June, 1999.
n N.L.Fantana, L. Pettersson, “Transformer life assessment and condition monitoring – tools and cases”, Proceedings
of Intern. Conf. on Power Transformers, New Delhi, 6-7 April, 2000.
n A. Jaksts et al., “A major breakthrough in transformer technology”, CIGRE Paper 12-101, Paris 2000
n P. Boss et al., “Economical aspects and practical experience of power transformer on-line monitoring”, CIGRE
Paper 12-202, Paris 2000.
n C. Beduz et. al., “The design, construction and operation of high temperature superconducting transformers – prac-
tical considerations”, CIGRE Paper 12-203, Paris 2000.
n S. Tenbohlen et al., “Enhanced diagnosis of power transformers using on-and off-line methods : results, examples
and future trends”, CIGRE Paper 12-204, Paris 2000.
n E. Serres et. al., “Current limitation in high temperature superconducting Transformers and impact on the grid”,
CIGRE Paper 12-205, Paris 2000.
n Y. Yamagata et. al., “Development and field test of 1000 kV / 3000 MVA transformer”, CIGRE Paper 12-303, Paris 1998.
n R. Baehr, “How to obtain high performing power transformers in service”, Key note CBIP Int. Conf. April 6/7, 2000 in
New Delhi.
n R. Baehr, “Recent and future development of power transformers”, Key note, Meeting of the Australian CIGRE NC,
Melbourne 1997.

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