On-line Monitoring and Diagnostics For Power

Transformers
Application to On-load Tap-changers

E. A. Mackenzie, J. Crossey, A. dePablo, W. Ferguson

Transformer Services
GE Energy
Belfast, United Kingdom
Elizabeth.MacKenzie@ge.com

Abstract—Transformers are a critical part of an electrical utility’s

asset base. Loss of a transformer in a utility, generation plant or
process can cost many millions of dollars, depending on how long
it is out-of-service. On-line monitoring and diagnostics is a useful
tool to help operators to manage their assets and make decisions on
continuing operation, maintenance or replacement.
This paper illustrates how Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) is the
heart of on-line monitoring as it is a well-established method of
transformer diagnosis. Experience has shown that DGA can detect
and give warning of 70% of the most common failures in power
transformers. Some aspects of ongoing developments in DGA and
its diagnosis are described.
Most of the knowledge built up over the last 40 years on DGA has
been based on mineral oil/paper insulation systems in transformers
and other static equipment such as bushings and instrument
transformers. In these types of equipment, the causes and
mechanisms of gassing have been established and the diagnosis of
faults is well documented.
The other transformer-related equipment that has largely been
ignored in the past is on-load tap-changer diverters or combined
diverter-selectors. In oil-filled diverters, it was generally assumed
that because arcing was taking place in the oil, large quantities of
fault gases were being produced and therefore conventional DGA
diagnosis could not be applied.
In recent years, various parties have investigated tap-changer oil
analysis. Several organizations have also been investigating on-
load tap-changer analysis based on ratios rather than discrete gas
concentrations. This paper describes an example of on-load tap-
changer condition assessment based on DGA measurements.
The paper goes on to describe some of the recent developments in
other on-line monitoring and diagnostic techniques, which help
transformer operators to know the condition of their transformers
and to make useful decisions on continuing operation, maintenance
or replacement. The monitoring systems can be used, not only to
monitor the parameters of the transformer, but also to carry out in-
depth analysis of the condition of the transformer insulation and
accessories.
Keywords: Transformer; On-load Tap-changers; Monitoring:
Dissolved gas analysis; Maintenance
I. INTRODUCTION
Transformers are a critical part of an electrical utility’s
asset base. Many utilities have an ageing fleet of
transformers that were installed as the system developed and
expanded. In numerous instances, transformers are being
operated for many years beyond their predicted useful life of
25 or 40 years. As electricity demand has increased,
transformers in some regions are being loaded beyond their
rated capacity in order to cope with the demand. Generator
transformers are heavily loaded as operators wish to
maximize their profits and meet the demand. In some
industries, e.g., aluminium smelting or steel plants,
transformers are also a critical part of the process. Loss of a
transformer in a utility, generation plant or process can cost
many millions of dollars, depending on how long it is out-
of-service. Replacing a transformer is a costly and time-
consuming process. Demand for transformers and raw
materials has increased in recent years, so the cost and lead-
time for delivery of a new transformer has increased.
Monitoring and diagnostics of transformers has been
developing since the 1950’s. Many techniques, off-line and
on-line, are being used to monitor transformers in order to
prevent catastrophic failure and minimize outages.
Condition-based maintenance is also being introduced into
many organizations to reduce maintenance costs by only
carrying out maintenance as necessary. This requires
knowledge of the condition of the transformer and its
accessories, and the ability to predict when maintenance will
be required.
This paper presents some of the recent developments in
on-line monitoring and diagnostic techniques that help
transformer operators to know the condition of their
transformers and to make useful decisions on continuing
operation, maintenance or replacement.
II. DISSOLVED GAS ANALYSIS – THE HEART OF
MONITORING
Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) is indisputably the best
detector of abnormalities in power transformers. Well-

978-1-4244-6301-5/10/$26.00 @2010 IEEE

known Guides for Interpretation of Gases [1,2,3] give clear
suggestions how to identify defective transformers and what
type of faults could occur. Experience has shown that DGA
can detect and give warning of 70% of the most common
failures in power transformers [4].
The faults detected by DGA include partial discharge
(PD) in the insulation system, also called corona, arcing
(discharges) and high temperature (thermal) problems. Each
of these faults produces different key gases and different
ratios of gases and can therefore be easily identified.
Traditionally, DGA has been carried out by taking a
sample of oil from the transformer, sending it to a laboratory
and waiting for the results. Unless there was any suspicion
of a problem in the transformer, samples might be taken at
intervals of up to 1 year, depending on the maintenance
regime of the operator. This means that a fault that develops
over a shorter period of time than the sampling interval can
be missed, leading to possible catastrophic failure of the
transformer.
Manual sampling can also lead to errors in the analysis.
For example, bad sampling techniques can introduce
contaminants into the oil, and inappropriate storage can
mean loss of gas from the oil between taking the sample and
analysis in the laboratory. Results can vary from laboratory
to laboratory, and even between users of the same
equipment. A Round Robin test co-ordinated by Michel
Duval for Cigré showed spreads of several hundreds of
percent between identical samples tested in different
laboratories using various techniques. A possible reason for
Figure 1. Typical output from on-line DGA monitoring system
this is that gas chromatographs are normally calibrated with
the aid of in-house prepared gas-in-oil standards or gas
mixtures whose actual concentrations are not well
established. This can lead to uncertainty in diagnosing the
results, especially when looking at trending of gas
concentrations.
On-line monitors for DGA have been developed using
various technologies including Photo-Acoustic Emission
Spectroscopy (PAS) and Gas Chromatography (GC). These
monitors can carry out continuous monitoring for critical
power transformers, providing alarms to the customer based
on the gas concentrations, rates of change of concentration
or gas ratios (Figure 1).
The most important aspect of these monitors is that they
have consistent and repeatable results on which trending
analysis can be applied. The systems also have built-in
alarms that can be used to warn the user of high levels of gas
concentrations, high rates-of-change of concentrations and
changes in key ratios.
III. DEVELOPMENTS IN DGA
Most of the knowledge built up over the last 40 years on
DGA has been based on mineral oil/paper insulation
systems in transformers and other static equipment such as
bushings and instrument transformers. In these types of
equipment, the causes and mechanisms of gassing have been
established and the diagnosis of faults is well documented.
 Much development work is ongoing in the field of DGA.
There are other liquids than mineral oil being used in
transformer insulation systems, such as silicone oils,
synthetic esters and more recently, vegetable-based oils.
The mechanisms for gassing in these insulation systems is
not yet established, but work is ongoing to develop the
diagnoses for different fault types. Because the population
of transformers containing these types of cooling liquid has
been relatively small, they have generally been ignored in
the field of DGA diagnostics. Now, with the predicted
reduction in availability of mineral oil, other liquids are
being seriously considered as alternative insulation media in
transformers. Silicone oils and other synthetic esters have
been used for many years, particularly in applications where
low fire risk is required. They can operate at higher normal
temperatures than the traditional mineral oil/paper insulation
systems, especially if synthetic solid insulation such as
Nomex is used. This means that the normal limitations of
temperature do not apply to these systems and higher
temperatures can be tolerated before the transformer is
considered to be in a “faulty” condition. The viability of
vegetable-based oils for transformer insulation has been
established, although there is still ongoing work required
before this type of oil can completely replace mineral oil in
all applications. The main driver behind this work is the
number of regulations that have come into force to avoid
contamination of the ground by mineral oil. This has forced
many utilities and users to develop costly processes and
systems to prevent leakage of mineral oil into the eco-
system. Vegetable oil, being bio-degradable, would not
require such severe restrictions to be put in place, thereby
providing a potential cost saving for users of oil.
The other transformer-related equipment that has largely
been ignored in the past is on-load tapchanger (OLTC)
diverters or combined diverter-selectors. Vacuum bottle
LTC’s should be analysed using conventional DGA
diagnosis, because no arcing should take place within the
oil.
In oil-filled diverters, it was generally assumed that
because arcing was taking place in the oil, large quantities of
fault gases were being produced and therefore conventional
DGA diagnosis could not be applied. In tapchanger
diverters, there can be up to 50,000 ppm of acetylene and
high quantities of other gases. The high levels of gases have
created problems for laboratories and monitoring equipment
that uses gas chromatography (GC) technology, because the
high level of gases in tapchanger oil contaminate the GC
equipment and it can take at least one day of purging to
bring the equipment back to a state where measurements at
very low gas concentrations can start again. Because of this,
laboratories have been reluctant to analyse tapchanger oil
unless they have equipment dedicated to high levels of
gases. This has led to a lack of information on tapchanger
oil analysis and is another reason that tapchanger diagnosis
has been slow to develop.
Using photo-acoustic spectroscopy (PAS) it is possible
to sample high gas concentrations and low gas
concentrations in consecutive samples, with a short (less
than one hour) purging time between samples. PAS
technology has been developed that allows transformer
samples with low gas concentrations to be analysed
immediately after tapchanger samples with high
concentrations, using only ambient air as the purging
medium.
In recent years, tapchanger oil analysis has been
investigated by various parties. Michel Duval has recently
published a Duval’s Triangle for oil-filled LTC`s [5], and
other organizations have also been investigating on-load
tapchanger analysis based on ratios instead of discrete gas
concentrations [6].
IV. CONDITION ASSESMENT OF TRANSFORMER TAP
CHANGERS BY OIL ANALYSIS
A condition assessment study was carried out on 3 three
phase, 400 kV GSU transformers, by means of DGA and
particles content in the oil of the diverter switches.
DGA were analyzed by two methods: Photoacoustic
Emission Spectroscopy and laboratory Gas Chromatography
(GC).
Particles were sorted into five size ranges: 5 – 15 μm, 15
– 25 μm, 25 – 50 μm, 50 – 100 μm and > 100 μm.
unfortunately the laboratory was unable to analyze particles
in the range 3 – 5 μm, which is very important to estimate
the presence of carbon in the oil.
Particles content, sorted by size, is shown in Table 1 and
DGA and water content results are shown in Table 2.
As expected on this type of tap changer (OLTC type R-
III-1200Y-123C), DGA results indicate some arcing activity.
A more detailed investigation shows that diverter
switches in Transformers 1A and 1B, despite the large
amounts of dissolved gases, have gas patterns that can be
associated to a normal condition. Arcing activity is due to the
normal tap changer operation.
Diverter switch 1X, however, has a different pattern
indicating the existence of a thermal defect associated to the
arcing activity.
IEEE [7] considers a possibility of overheating of the
diverter switch contacts, if the sum of “arcing” gases, in
percentage, is less than the sum of “thermal” gases, as it is
shown in Figure 2.
TABLE I. PARTICLES CONTENT
Size range GSU 1X GSU 1A GSU 1B
5 to 15 μm 1939635 1937185 1259390
15 to 25 μm 32795 14945 19540
25 to 50 μm 5620 1820 1870
50 to 100 μm 830 80 180
> 100 μm 200 50 0
 TABLE II. DISSOLVED GAS ANALYSIS AND WATER CONTENT RESULTS
Gas Diverter Switch Tank 1X Diverter Switch Tank 1A Diverter Switch Tank 1B
Photo-Acoustic Laboratory Photo-Acoustic Laboratory Photo-Acoustic Laboratory
Spectroscopy Spectroscopy Spectroscopy
H2 7989 9761 10756 4884 15237 1906
CO 176 127 165 122 109 59
CO2 1641 1657 1778 1730 1237 1012
CH4 2541 4394 1667 2365 1205 1131
C2H6 2622 2789 1108 814 1119 681
C2H4 12974 17136 6896 6715 6049 4715
C2H2 9762 12480 14493 15871 10842 9239
H2O 67 33 77 30 58 28

100

90
1B
80

70
1A
60
% Sum Arc

50 1X
40

30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% Sum Thermal

Figure 2. Determination of probability of contact deterioration in the diverter switch

According to the readings of Transport X, the ratios

between “arcing” and “thermal” gases in the three diverter FR =
[C2 H 2 + H 2 ]
switches are the following (Table 3). [CH 4 + C2 H 6 + C2 H 4 + C2 H 2 + CO + H 2 ]
(1)
TABLE III. RATIOS BETWEEN “ARCING” AND “THERMAL” GASES
Arcing (H2, C2H2) Thermal (CH4, C2H6, C2H4) R1 =
[CH 4 + C2 H 6 + C2 H 4 ] (2)
Diverter 1X
Diverter 1A
17751 (49%)
25249 (72%)
18137 (51%)
9671 (28%)
[CH 4 + C2 H 6 + C2 H 4 + C2 H 2 ]
Diverter 1B 25079 (75%) 8372 (25%)

R2 =
[CH 4 + C2 H 6 + C2 H 4 ] (3)
This means that contact deterioration of diverter switch [C2 H 2 ]
1X should be based on dissolved gas analysis results.
In addition, EPRI [8] suggests considering following key
R3 =
[C2 H 4 ] (4)
ratios:
[C2 H 2 ]
With following interpretation criteria: V. CONCLUSIONS
New sensors and systems for transformer monitoring are
TABLE IV. INTERPRETATION CRITERIA FOR CONTACTS OVERHEATING being developed and brought to market. These systems give
users information about the health of their transformers so
R Needs Damage Damage Switch Switch Switch
attention possible detected 1X 1A 1B that maintenance can be planned and costly, unplanned
FR ≤0,6 ≤0,35 ≤0,15 0,49 0,72 0,75 outages can be avoided in most cases. On-line monitoring
R1 ≥0,5 ≥0,6 ≥0,8 0,61 0,40 0,44 can alert the user to rapidly developing faults within
R2 ≥0,8 ≥4 ≥6 1,86 0,67 0,77 transformers and their accessories and thus avoid
R3 ≥1 ≥6 ≥9 1,32 0,47 0,56 catastrophic failure and loss of the transformer. The
monitoring systems can be used to diagnose faults and
Again, diverter switches of transformers 1A and 1B are determine what action should be taken – leave the
in normal operating conditions, but diverter switch of transformer in service, remove it for refurbishment or replace
transformer 1X needs attention according to ratios FR, R2 it.
and R3 and there are clear symptoms of contacts deterioration Dissolved Gas Analysis gives a good basis for a
according to ratio R1. monitoring system as it can give a general picture of
Particle content of the three diverter switches is given in transformer health. Other parameters can be correlated with
Table 1 above. All three transformers contain a very large DGA to provide the user with detailed information about the
condition of a transformer
number of particles in the range 5 – 15 μm, suggesting that
some oil “coking” takes place. Dissolved gas analysis and particle contamination content
were used to diagnose the condition of 3 three phase GSU
This can be confirmed by the physical aspects differences
transformers. Results show a failure condition in the diverter
between the oil of transformer 1X diverter switch and the oil
switch of the 1X transformer. This condition is connected
of transformer 1X main tank (Figure 3).
with abnormally high-energy dissipation, which leads to the
When comparing the results between transformer 1X and accelerated oil ageing and decomposition with formation of
transformers 1A and 1B, it can be seen that transformer 1X great amount of carbon particles. Abnormal heating may be
has much higher particles content than the other two caused by contamination of contacts surface with oil ageing
transformers in the bigger sizing ranges. This can be and oxidation products, formation of cavities and dents on
associated to mechanical deterioration of the diverter switch contacts working surfaces, decrease of pressing force of
contacts in transformer 1X. movable contacts and increase of transient resistance of fixed
contacts.

Figure 3. Physical aspect of the oil in diverter switch (above) and main
tank (down) of transformer 1X
REFERENCES
[1] IEC 60599 - Mineral oil-impregnated equipment in service-
interpretation of dissolved and free gases analysis. Geneva.
[2] IEEE Guide for the Interpretation of Gases Generated in Oil-
Immersed Transformers, IEEE Std C57.104-2008.
[3] A.Moelmann, B.Pahlavanpour, New Guidelines for Interpretation of
Dissolved Gas Analysis in Oil-Filled Transformers, Electra #186,
October 1999.
[4] CIGRE. Life management techniques for power transformers.
Technical Brochure 227. Paris June 2003.
[5] M. Duval. The Duval triangle for load tap changers, non-mineral oils
and low temperatures faults in transformers. IEEE Electr. Insul. Mag.,
vol. 24, no. 6, 22-29, 2008
[6] N. Field. Power transformer on-load tap changer evaluation using
dissolved gas-in-oil analysis. IEEE Mexico Section. 22nd Summer
meeting on power and industrial applications. P12. Acapulco July
2009.
[7] IEEE PC57.139. Draft guide for dissolved gas analysis of load tap
changers. 2009.
[8] H.-U. Schellhase, I. Wilye, M. Lau and B. Ward. Load tap-changer
diagnostics: a critical review of the past ten years. EPRI (1999).