Application of Artificial Neural Networks for

Electrical Losses Estimation in Three-Phase

Transformer
C. Suppitaksakul1 and V. Saelee2
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT)
Klong 6, Thanyaburi, Pathumthani 12110, Thailand
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, South-East Asia University (SAU)
Nong-Krang-Poo, Nong-Kam, Bangkok 10160, Thailand
Email: schai910@yahoo.co.uk and vichai_sealee@yahoo.com
Abstract- This paper proposes an application of Artificial Networks (ANN) is brief introduced then the Implementation
Neural Networks (ANN) for estimation of electrical losses in the of Neural Network is explained in Section IV. In Section V,
three-phase distribution transformer during construction stages.
The Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is employed as an
simulations and experiments are demonstrated. Finally in
estimator in order to identify the electrical loss of the distribution Section VI, the conclusions and discussions regarding the
transformer during design process. The related parameters such proposed technique are reported.
as input current, core loss, copper loss, resistance of transformer
windings, and ambient temperature were collected from the II. ELECTRICAL LOSSES
measuring of 100 transformers. Some of these data are used to
train ANN and test. The trained ANN is then tested by 20 data
Transformer efficiency can be improved by reducing
sets from the collected data. The simulations which are compared electrical losses (PT) which are composed of core loss (Pcore)
to the measured values of the test sets provide satisfactory and copper loss (PCU) as the following equation:
estimation of electrical loss with an acceptable error.
PT = Pcore+PCU (1)
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Core loss
In industrial environment, dealing with distribution The core loss is defined as the power absorbed by the
transformer construction, accurate estimation of electrical transformer when it is submitted to a voltage and frequency,
losses is an essential task as they constitute one of the most being the circuit secondary in open (no load) that known as
important parameters of transformer quality. Currently, open circuit test. The open circuit test for 3-phase transformer
electrical loss is still a major concern for the distribution is shown in Figure 1. The core loss (Pcore) is composed of
transformer manufactories because it represents both technical hysteresis loss (PH) and the eddy-current losses (PE):
and financial damages. The essential of reduction of electrical
loss in the power system is related to the increasing demand for Pcore = PH +PE (2)
reliable and flexible power distribution systems to maintain The hysteresis loss is due to the fact that the repeated
network operation feasible in both normal and overload changes of the direction of the flux in the iron-core require
conditions. In transformer designing, a crucial requirement is energy which is dissipated as heat and it is calculated from:
to guarantee that the power dissipated in the transformers stays
within an acceptable level. In fact the total losses in a PH = Ks.B1.6.f (3)
transformer have calculated by combination of core loss and where PH are losses caused for hysteresis, Ks is the
copper loss. However, if the total loss can be estimated with coefficients of the combined material in the iron-core, B is the
less process, it could help in saving designing time. maximum of magnetic flux density and f is the frequency.
The use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for transformer The eddy-current loss is due to the fact that circuiting
losses analysis and prediction has been studied by many currents are induced in the iron-core because of the changing
researchers [1-5]. There is a work done by Souza [1] who flux and these currents generated an |I|2 R loss in the iron-core.
employed ANN to identify electrical loss in the single-phase The eddy-current (or Foucault current) loss can be calculated
transformer. However, their model required several parameters by the expression:
as inputs of ANN. In our study, ANN is employed for
estimation electrical loss in 3-phase distribution transformer at PE = Ke.f.2 .B2.d 2.10-3 (4)
rated 100kVA,22kV,400/230V,Dny11 with less training where PE are losses caused for eddy current, Ke is a constant
parameters. of eddy current, f is the frequency, B is the maximum of
The paper is organized as the follows: Section II The paper magnetic flux density and d is the thickness of the core
is organized as the follows: Section II, Electrical losses and the lamination.
relate factors are described. Section III, Artificial Neural

978-1-4244-3388-9/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE

 Transformer
V 3 phase
A a A
Supply V
Variac Watt b B
3phase A meter
3 phase c
V 3 phase
A n C
Iow voltage side High voltage side
Figure 1. Open circuit test for three-phase transformer Figure 3. Three-phase transformer winding resistance measuring

Transformer where Rr is the winding resistance at the required

V 3 phase
A C
Supply Variac
V Watt
A meter B
3phase 3 phase
V 3 phase
A A
High voltage side
Figure 2. Short-circuit test for three-phase transformer
B. Copper loss
Copper loss is the loss in a conductor depends upon its
resistance and the square of the current it carries. The copper
loss is defined as the power absorbed by the transformer when
it is submitted to a much lower voltage than normal and
frequency, being the circuit secondary in short which known as
short-circuit test. Figure 2 illustrates the short-circuit test for
3-phase transformer. The copper loss (PCU) for 3-phases
transformer is given by:
PCU = 3(IHV.2 .RHV + ILV 2.RLV)
where IHV is the primary current (higher-voltage side), RHV is
the primary resistance, ILV is the secondary current (lower-
voltage side) and RLV is the secondary resistance.
The winding resistances of the 3-phase transformer are
provided by measuring using Wheatstone bridge circuit as
shown in Figure 3. In this study, the three primary windings
are internally connected in delta (Δ) and the secondary
windings are connected in wye (Υ). The resistance of each
primary winding per phase (Rpri/phase) is
3 application. The MLP architecture is illustrated in Figure 4. It
RHV = Rpri/phase = RWB
2 consists of (i) an input layer with nodes representing input
Also the resistance of each secondary winding per phase
(Rsec/phase) is given as:
RWB
RLV = Rsec/phase =
2
where RWB is the measured resistance obtain from
Wheatstone bridge circuit.
As the winding resistance varies with temperature at the time
of measuring and the variation of resistance of metallic
conductors with temperature is practically linear over the
normal range of operation [6,7]. So it is feasible to define the
winding resistance at the different temperatures as the
following:
temperature (θr), Ra is the winding resistance at the ambient
n temperature (θa) when making a measurement and 235 is the
c constant temperature in degrees Celsius for annealed copper of
b 100% conductivity [6].
a
Iow voltage side
III. ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK
An Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is a computational
structure inspired by the study of biological neural network
processing. ANN is a dynamic system which consists of highly
interconnected and parallel nonlinear processing elements or
units or nodes that shows extreme efficiency in computation.
ANN can also be considered to be a flexible mathematical
structure which is capable of identifying complex nonlinear
relationships between input and output data sets. For these
reasons ANN models have been found to be useful and
efficient when applied to problems for which the
characteristics of the process are difficult to describe using
mathematical equations [8]. The merits of using ANN for the
(5) electrical losses analysis are listed as the followings: 1) the
ability of learning and therefore generalization, 2) the facility
of implementation in hardware, and 3) the capacity of mapping
complex systems without necessity of knowing the eventual
mathematical models associated with them.
In our application, we intend to map the relationship along
with the electrical losses in the transformers is related to the
variables which indicate the features to loss process. As
aforementioned ANN particularly, a feed-forward multiplayer
perceptron (MLP) with an error back-propagation learning
algorithm is therefore deemed to be suitable for our
(6)
variables to the problem, (ii) an output layer with nodes
representing the dependent variables, and (iii) one or more
hidden layers containing nodes to help capture the non-
linearity in the data.
(7)

Rr = Ra ⎛ 235 + θ r ⎞ (8)
⎜ ⎟
⎝ 235 + θ a ⎠ Figure 4. A feed-forward multiplayer perceptron (MLP)
 Using supervised learning with the error-correction learning Table 1: Look-Up table
rule (ECL), these networks can learn the mapping from one Output PCORE RHV RLV Temp
data space to another using examples. The term back- PT (w) PCU (w)
Index (w) (Ω) (mΩ) ( °C)

propagation refers to the way the error computed at the output

side is propagated backward from the output layer, to the 1 0.00 0.00 0.00 57.80 21.00

hidden layer, and finally to the input layer. In the MLP, the 2 240.26 0.06 240.20 57.80 21.00
3 238.80 0.50 238.30 57.87 21.00
data are fed forward into the network without feedback. The
4 241.53 1.13 240.40 57.80 21.00
neurons in the MLP can be fully or partially interconnected [9].
5 241.91 2.01 239.90 57.93 21.00
6 243.83 3.13 240.70 57.70 21.00
IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEURAL NETWORK 30
7 245.01 4.51 240.50 57.70 21.00
According to the work by Souza et al. [1], they indicated the 8 246.25 6.15 240.10 57.90 21.00
total transformer loss (PT) using 6 variables as the follows the 9 248.94 8.04 240.90 58.13 21.00
temperature in degree Celsius (T), the resistances of the high 10 250.46 10.15 240.30 57.73 21.00
and low voltage winding (RHV and RLV), the core and copper
11 252.82 12.52 240.30 57.70 21.00
losses (Pcore and PCU) and the magnetizing current (IM). These
variables were set as inputs and the total loss (PT) of the
601 1560.10 1319.70 240.40 57.47 21.00
transformer for the output (training target) of the MLP.
602 1591.12 1350.52 240.60 57.73 21.00
Unlike the work proposed by Souza, two variables,
temperatures due to it effect to the transformer loss as shown in 603 1622.63 1382.73 239.90 57.47 21.00
75
Figure 5 and the test current (ITest), are employed for the total 604 1631.21 1391.51 239.70 57.27 21.00
transformer loss (PT) identifying. The MLP with two neurons 605 1665.28 1429.98 235.30 57.20 21.00
at the input layer and one neuron at the output layer was 606 1704.65 1464.65 240.00 57.73 21.00
implemented as shown in Figure 6. The test current (ITest) is
adjusted from 0% to 100% at the pre-processing and the six
The Levenberg-Marquardt [10] is employed as the training
different values of temperature: 30°C, 35°C, 45°C, 55°C, 60°C
algorithm because it provides stable training with small
and 75°C are employed to determine the number of the set of training rates. The MLP with log-sigmoid transfer function in
training data.
the hidden layer, linear transfer function in the output layer and
In this study, we intend to use the trained MLP as a classifier
the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is employed in the ANN.
that is used to identify the address where the set of data are
Firstly, the MLP with is trained using the percent of the test
kept in the look-up table. Therefore, not only the estimate total
current (ITest) and the temperature (T) sets are fed into the MLP,
loss (PT) is given but also the related variables: the core loss
which has 2 input nodes. The MLP then evolves itself by
(Pcore), the copper loss (PCU), the resistances of both the high
correctly weighting the nodes in the hidden layer, which has 20
winding (RHV) and the low voltage winding (RLV) are obtained.
nodes, to achieve the desired output (1 output node) for the
The kept data in the look-up table were collected from
given input.
experiments of 100 transformers that were done at the
transformer manufactories in Thailand. The average value of
each variable from the 80 data sets is used as the output of the
look-up table. Therefore, all of the values at the same address
of the look-up table are obtained when the output that functions
as an index is given. An example of the look-up table is shown
in Table 1.

Figure 6. MLP architecture

V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The experiment is carried out on the trained MLP simulation
in order to evaluate the proposed method, 20 test data sets that
measured from three-phase distribution transformers with the
rates of 100 KVA,22kV-400/230V, Dyn11 were used to
compare the results. The error in percent can be calculated as
in (9)

Measurement value - ANN value

Power Error (%) = ×100 (9)
Measurement value
Figure 5. Total losses at 35°C, 55°C and 75°C
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VI. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this study, the use of ANN for estimation of electrical
losses has been presented. The ANN was employed as the
classifier that is able to map the relationship between the
electrical losses in transformers relation to the several
parameters that indicates the feature to loss process. An
advantage of using ANN as the classifier is the trained ANN
can be applied to the different type of transformer only change
the data in the look-up table.
From the training process, it can be seen that the increasing
of training data sets is possible, so that the resolution of the
parameters such as temperature, core losses and copper losses
can also increase. Therefore, the accuracy of the technique can
be improved. Besides, the time consuming for transformer
testing in the laboratory can also be reduced because the less
parameters requires for the test. However, the technique
required some improvement in order to apply in transformer
design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Pongpiman Electric
Company Ltd. and T. D. Transformer Company Ltd., Thailand
for providing data industrial measurements.