TRANSFORMER PROTECTION

Components of a power transformer

1) Steel tank – This is the outer enclosure that houses the core and
windings; it is where the accessories are mounted. In power
transformers it contains oil for cooling it.
2) Core – It is made of sheets of ferromagnetic material, insulated from
each other by an adhesive. The purpose of the laminations is to reduce
eddy currents thereby reduce the core losses. The laminations are held
together by insulated bolts and clamps.
3) Windings – There are two sets of windings; the primary winding which
is connected to the supply and the secondary winding connected to the
load. The windings may also be referred to as the high voltage and low
voltage windings. The L.V winding is made of large cross-sectional
area conductors and is place next to the core; the H.V. winding is made
of fine conductors and is wound concentrically over the L.V winding.
4) Tap changing Switch – This used to change the turns ratio to allow for
correction of variations in primary side voltage.
 5) Conservator

It is fitted on large
transformer units. It is in the form of a tank located above the tank of
the transformer. It contains extra oil and window to indicate the level of
oil in the conservator if included. A pipe is used to connect the tank to
the conservator; the pipe is however not connected at the bottom of the
conservator. The purpose of the conservator is:
(i) Hold extra oil hence allows the level of oil to increase and
decrease with temperature variations without affecting the oil
level in the tank.
(ii) To reduce the surface area of the oil that is in contact with air
thereby reducing the rate of oxidation.
(iii) Because the pipe between the tank and conservator is not at
the bottom of the conservator tank sludge and water that
forms at the bottom of the tank does not pass to the main
tank. The conservator can be drained periodically to remove
sludge and water that would have accumulated.
6) Breather – This is an attachment connected to the conservator. It
allows air in and out of the transformer as oil contracts and expands
with temperature variations. The breather contains silica gel crystals
that dry the air as it passed into the transformer. Dry silica gel is blue
and turns pink when it is saturated with moisture. When silica gel is
saturated it may be reconditioned by heating gently in a pan to drive
away moisture.
7) Explosion vent – It is in the form of a pipe bolted on top of the tank and
fitted with a diaphragm. It allows oil to escape from the tank when a
large fault occurs in the tank that may involve the production of large
quantities of gas
8) Bucholtz Relay
This is a protective device located between the main tank of an oil cooled
transformer and the conservator.
It provides protection for faults that involve the evolution of gases.
It provides an alarm in the event of a small fault that involves the evolution of
small quantities of gas as well as in the event of low oil levels.
It also provides disconnection of supply in the event of a serious fault.
Transformer Cooling

Losses in the transformer are of the order of 1% of its full load kW rating.
These losses get converted in the heat thereby the temperature of the
windings, core, oil and the tank rises. The heat is dissipated from the
transformer tank and the radiator in to the atmosphere. Transformer cooling
helps in maintaining the temperature rise of various parts within permissible
limits. In case of Transformer, Cooling is provided by the circulation of the oil.
Transformer Oil acts as both insulating material and also cooling medium in
the transformer. For small rating transformers heat is removed from the
transformer by natural thermal convection. For large rating transformers this
type of cooling is not sufficient, for such applications forced cooling is used.

As size and rating of the transformer increases, the losses increase at a faster
rate. So oil is circulated in the transformer by means of oil pumps. Within the
tank the oil is made to flow through the space between the coils of the
windings.

Several different combination of natural, forced, air, oil transformer cooling

methods are available. The choice of picking the right type of transformer
cooling method for particular application depends on the factors such as
rating, size, and location.

Transformer Cooling Methods

Transformer cooling methods are named by means of letters which represent

cooling medium as follows;
 A - Air cooling

O - Natural oil cooling

W - Water cooling

and the method of circulation of the cooling medium as follows;

N - Natural circulation by convection

F - Circulation by means of a fan, oil pump or water pump.

A sequence of these letters is used to name the transformers cooling method.

1st letter - cooling medium of the core and windings (internal cooling).

2nd letter - method of circulation of internal cooling medium.

3rd letter-cooling medium of transformer tank (external cooling)

4th letter- method of circulation of external cooling medium.

Different Transformer Cooling methods are listed below.

Air Cooling For Dry Type Transformers:

 Air natural Type (A.N.)

 Air Forced type (A.F.)

Cooling For Oil Immersed Transformers:

 Oil Natural Air Natural Type (O.N.A.N.)

 Oil Natural Air Forced Type (O.N.A.F.)
 Oil Forced Air Natural Type (O.F.A.N.)
 Oil Forced Air Forced Type (O.F.A.F.)

Oil immersed Water Cooling:

 Oil Natural Water Forced (O.N.W.F.)

 Oil Forced Water Forced (O.F.W.F.)

Air Natural Transformer Cooling (A.N.):

This type of Transformer Cooling method applies to dry type transformer of

small rating. The surrounding air in the vicinity of the transformer is used for
cooling. Small transformers below 25kVA can be readily cooled by air natural
cooling. However air natural cooling is also used for large dry type
transformers. Cooling takes place by convection air currents.

Air Forced Transformer Cooling (A.F.):

This type of cooling is provided for dry type transformers. The air is forced on
to the tank surface to increase the rate of heat dissipation. The fans are
switched on when the temperature of the winding increases above
permissible level.

Oil Natural Air Natural Transformer Cooling (O.N.A.N.):

This type of Transformer cooling is widely used for oil filled transformers up to
about 30MVA. In Natural cooling, the oil in the tanks gets heated due to the
heat generated in the core and windings. The hot Oil flows upward and the
cold Oil comes down according to the principle of convection. The oil flows in
the transformer tank by the principle of natural convection hence this type of
cooling is called Oil Natural Cooling. Heat is transferred from core and
transformer windings to the oil and the heated oil is cooled by the natural air.
Cooling area is increased by providing the cooling tubes.
Oil natural Air Forced Transformer Cooling (O.N.A.F.):

In this method, air fans are mounted near the Transformer and the forced air
is directed on to the cooling tubes to increase the rate of cooling. The fans are
provided with automatic starting. When the temperature of the oil and wind-
ings increases above a permissible value the thermostats switch on cooling
fans. This happens during heavy load condition and during higher ambient
temperatures.

Oil Forced Air Natural Type: (O.F.A.N.)

In higher rating transformers where the heat dissipation is difficult this type of
cooling is used. Oil pump is used to circulate the oil inside the transformer
tank. Hot oil is pumped out of the transformer from the top and is passed
through a radiator that is cooled by air that circulated naturally around the ra-
diator. Cool oil is then pumped back into the oil tank through the bottom.

Oil Forced Air Forced Transformer Cooling (O.F.A.F.):

Transformers above 60 MVA employ a combination of Forced Oil and Forced

Air Cooling. In case of Forced Oil and Forced air cooling system a separate
cooler is mounted away from the transformer tank. This cooler is connected to
the transformer with pipes at the bottom and the top. The oil is circulated from
the transformer to the cooler through the pump. The cooler is provided with
the fans which blast air on the cooling tubes. This type of cooling is provided
for the higher rating transformers available at the Substations and Power Sta-
tions.

Oil natural Water Forced Transformer Cooling (ONWF):

In this transformer oil circulates naturally by convection inside the transformer
tank. A coiled copper tube is located inside the transformer tank above the
level of the core and windings. Cool water is the passed through the tubes by
means of water pump there by cooling the oil in the transformer tank. This
method off cooling is becoming less popular over the OFWF method, because
a leak in the cooling tubes may result in the need to replace all the oil in the
transformer.

Oil Forced Water Forced Transformer Cooling

This type of cooling system needs a heat exchanger in which the heat of the
transformer oil is given to the cooling water. The cooling water is taken away
and cooled in separate coolers. The oil is forced through the heat exchanger.
The oil pump pumps the oil from transformer to the heat exchanger though
the top pipes. Oil from the heat exchanger is pumped back to the transformer
through the bottom pipe. This type of cooling Is provided for very large trans-
formers which have ratings of some hundreds of MVA (Generating Trans-
former will have very high rating and rating equal to the rating of the gener-
ator). This type of transformers is used in large substations and power plants.

Testing transformer oil

a) Water content

Water, in minute quantities, is harmful in power equipment be-

cause it is attracted to the places of greatest electrical stress
and this is where it is the most dangerous. Water accelerates
the deterioration of both the insulating oil and the paper insula-
tion, liberating more water in the process (heat catalysed). This
is a never ending circle and once the paper insulation has been
degraded (loss of mechanical strength) it can never (unlike the
 oil) be returned to its original condition. Water can originate from
two sources. Atmospheric ie via the silica gel breather (dry silica
gel is always blue) or via leaks into the power equipment, i.e.
bad gasketing, cracked insulation, a loose manhole cover, a rup-
tured explosion diaphragm etc. (if oil can get out, water can get
in). Internal Sources Paper degradation produces water. Oil de-
gradation produces water. Wet insulation contaminates the oil,
(temperature dependent)

b) Dielectric strength

The dielectric strength of insulating oil is a measure of the oils

ability to withstand electrical stress without failure. The test in-
volves applying a ac voltage at a controlled rate to two elec-
trodes immersed in the insulating fluid. The gap is a specified
distance. When the current arcs across this gap the voltage re-
corded at that instant is the dielectric strength breakdown
strength of the insulating liquid. Contaminants such as water,
sediment and conducting particles reduce the dielectric strength
of insulating oil. A combination of these tends to reduce the
dielectric strength to a greater degree. Clean dry oil has an in-
herently high dielectric strength but this does not necessarily in-
dicates the absence of all contaminates, it may merely indicate
that the amount of contaminants present between the electrodes
is not large enough to affect the average breakdown voltage of
the liquid. Di-electric strength is typically 27KV.

c) Acidity or neutralisation number (NN) Test Method: Acids in the

oil originate from oil decomposition/oxidation products. Acids
can also come from external sources such as atmospheric con-
tamination. These organic acids are detrimental to the insulation
system and can induce corrosion inside the transformer when
water is present. An increase in the acidity is an indication of the
rate of deterioration of the oil with SLUDGE as the inevitable by-
product of an acid situation which is neglected. The acidity of oil
in a transformer should never be allowed to exceed 0.25mg
KOH/g oil. This is the CRITICAL ACID NUMBER and deteriora-
tion increases rapidly once this level is exceed.
d) Interfacial tension(IFT)

The Interfacial Tension (IFT) measures the tension at the inter-

face between two liquid (oil and water) which do not mix and is
expressed in dyne/cm. The test is sensitive to the presence of
oil decay products and soluble polar contaminants from solid in-
sulating materials. Good oil will have an interfacial tension of
between 40 and 50 dynes/cm. Oil oxidation products lower the
interfacial tension and have an affinity for both water (hydro-
philic) and oil. This affinity for both substances lowers the IFT.
The greater the concentration of contaminants, the lower the
 IFT, with a badly deteriorated oil having an IFT of 18 dynes/cm
or less.

Lightning protection.

a) Surge arresters or lightning arresters (LA’s)

The power system is subject to transient over voltages due to lightning and
switching. Lightning arresters (also called surge diverters) are applied to limit
the peak voltages to values that cannot damage the equipment to limit over
voltages. These over voltages are limited by the use of nonlinear resistive ele-
ments. In conventional lightning arrestors silicon carbide elements were used.
To prevent the continuous flow of leakage currents, spark gaps are required.
Modern metal oxide elements low leakage currents that gaps are not neces-
sary.

b) Arcing horns
Arcing horns (sometimes arc-horns) are projecting conductorsused to
protect insulators on high voltage electric power transmission systems from
damage during flashover.

c) Reactors
Current limiting reactors can reduce short-circuit currents, which result from
plant expansions and power source additions, to levels that can be
adequately handled by existing distribution equipment They can also be used
in high voltage electric power transmission grids for a similar purpose. The
main motive of using current limiting reactors is to reduce short-circuit
currents so that circuit breakers with lower short circuit breaking capacity can
be used.
Line reactors;
 Minimize catastrophic drive failures due to transient over-voltages
(harmonics)
 Minimize nuisance over-voltage trips due to line transients
 Utility power factor correction
 Switching large AC motor loads
 Switching large transformers.