TRANSFORMER, PRINCIPLE,

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

PRESENTED BY:
ENGR. M. S. AMINU

Transformer Classifications
Power Transformers
Generator Unit Transformer
Transmission Transformers
Sub-Transmission Subtraction Transformers
Distribution Transformer
Instruments Transformers
Current Transformers
Voltage Transformers

1.1 Definition:
Transformers :transfer electrical energy at system voltage to electrical
energy at the required voltage or higher voltage.

1.2 Types of transformers

Distribution transformers:- Oil immersed transformers

Instrument transformer
- Current transformers
- Voltage transformers

- Askarel immersed transformers

- Dry type transformers
1.2.1 Oil immersed transformers :
Oil immersed transformers have their cores & windings
immersed in mineral oil.

1.2.3 Dry type transformers:

Dry type transformers have no insulating & cooling fluid they are designed
according to the type of insulation of the windings into varnish insulated &
silicon insulated dry type transformers.

Self Cooling :

Distribution transformers are mainly manufactured with self cooling , with

this kind of cooling the heat generated is dissipated by the natural air flow
and by radiation .
With forced air cooling the cooling air is circulated by fans . subsequent
addition of fans to the transformer is only possible after consulting the
manufacturer .
The limits of temperature rise permitted for various insulating materials are
specified in ( VDE-0532 ) and these are based on the following limits of
cooling air temperature : -

Maximum temperature of air 40h C .

Daily mean temperature of the air 30h C .
Yearly mean temperature of the air 20h C .
The temperature of the ambient air is measured at a distance of 1-2 m
from the transformer .

1.2.4 Instrument transformers :

- Current transformers
- Voltage transformers
Current transformers:
Current transformer is transformer with small rate power (burden) ,
whose primary windings are in series with the line circuit , and
secondary windings are connected to measuring instruments ,
electricity meters relays or control devices , current transformers
isolate the measuring of protection circuits from the primary voltage
and also protect the apparatus corresponding to the over current
response of the current .
1.2.5 Voltage transformers :
Voltage transformers are also of small power rate and operate at
almost no load . they isolate the primary high voltage from the
connected measuring or protected circuits.

Transformer major Parts

The magnetic circuit
The windings (primary and secondary, and
tertiary)
Solid insulation materials of the windings
and core
Tank enclosure

nh

Major Parts of Transformer

(Contd)
Bushings and leads
Coolants (Insulants) and cooling
arrangement
Taps and tap-changing arrangement
Protective gear, circuit breakers, protective
relays
Other auxiliary equipment

Magnetic Circuit
The core, a magnetic circuit with a clamping
structure, is the part of the transformer in
which a magnetic field oscillates
The metallic composition of the core is a
special high grade silicon sheet steel.
A typical sheet of steel is 0.014 inches
(0.3mm) thick.

Magnetic Circuit (Contd)

These sheets are laminated into sections that are
several inches wide.
These core laminations help reduce eddy
currents or currents induced in the iron parts of
the unit.
Each lamination in turn is coated with
insulating material. This coating helps prevent
magnetic losses and reduces heating losses

Windings
The primary and secondary windings include
clamping arrangements.
There are four types of coils or windings used on
core-type transformers, these having the following
designations:
Spiral type
Crossover type
Helical type
Continuous disc type

Tank Enclosure and Cooling

surfaces
The tank contains the transformer together
with cooling surface and coolant.
It serves as a surface to radiate heat to the
surrounding air.
For self-cooled transformers, the main
types of tanks in modern use are.

Tank Types

Plain sheet steel

Boiler plate with external cooling tubes
Radiator tanks
Tanks with separate coolers

Bushings
Bushings are usually made of porcelain
The inside of the bushing may be oil,
paper, epoxy, or fiber glass.
Bushings serve to insulate the primary and
secondary windings from the tank
(ground).

Insulants or Coolants
Air, gas, oil, or synthetic liquid may be
used.

Tap-Changing Arrangement
Tappings can be used for the following
purposes.
Primary tappings to vary the primary voltage
Secondary tappings to vary the secondary
voltage
Primary tappings to compensate for
variations in the primary voltage

TRANSFORMERS
Definition :
Transformers can be defined as a static electric machine which converts electric
energy from one potential to another at the same frequency .

It can also be defined as consists of two electric circuits linked by a common variable flux.

Theory of operation :
The primary coil of the transformer is connected to a supply of sine wave
voltage . an alternating sine wave current will flow in the primary . thus
the primary m.m.f ( N.I ) will produce a common
flux ( g ) which is also alternating and in phase with the current according
to Faradays law the common flux interesting two coils will induce in
them an alternating e.m.f ( e1 , e2 ) .

N1d
e1 dt

e1

is an e.m.f of self induction

e2

is an e.m.f of Mutual induction

from 1,2 the transformation ratio

e1
N1
K

e2 N 2

d
e1 - N 2
dt

Insulation System
Insulation system is made up of
Liquid coolant
Solid insulating materials
The life of the transformer depends
primarily on the life of this insulation

Insulation System
Insulation system consists of
The liquid insulants together with
The solid insulating materials around the
windings
The insulation system isolates the
transformer windings from each other and
from the ground.

Insulation System (Contd)

The most widely used transformer insulation
systems continue to use two basic items:
A liquid insulation (transformer mineral oil
askarel or sillcone, of which more than 90%
are oil-filled) and
Solid insulation (Kraft paper, cellulose
products, PVC, PE and XLPE.

Liquid Insulants
The insulating fluid serves three primary
purposes:
Provides dielectric strength
Provides sufficient cooling
Protects the insulation system.

Solid Insulating Materials

The solid material insulates the winding
because it possesses two distinct properties.
It has the ability to withstand both electrical and
mechanical stresses due to the voltages used.
It is such a poor conductor that a negligibly small
current can flow through it and leak away. In
other words, a good insulator will neither allow
current to break through it nor to steal through
it.

Solid Insulting materials (Contd)

Consequently, a practical insulation system must
contain material that performs the four major
function listed below:
The ability to withstand the relatively high
voltages encountered in normal service (dielectric
strength). This voltage includes both impulses and
transient surges
The ability to withstand the mechanical and
thermal (heat) stresses which accompany a short
circuit.

Solid Insulating Materials

(Contd.)
The ability to prevent excessive heat
accumulation (heat transfer).
The ability to maintain desired
characteristics for an acceptable service
life period, given proper maintenance.

Cooling in Transformers
No-load losses and load losses are the two
significant sources of heating considered in
thermal modeling of power transformers.
Load losses are the more significant source
of transformer heating, consisting of copper
loss due to the winding resistance and stray
load loss due to eddy currents in other
structural parts of the transformer.

Cooling In Transformers (Contd)

The basic method for cooling transformers is
transferring heat from the core and windings to
the insulating coolant such as oil.
The wasted energy in the form of heat generated
in the transformers due to the foregoing iron
and copper losses must be carried away to
prevent excessive temperature rise and injury to
the insulation about the conductors.

Cooling In Transformers (Contd)

Cooling may be by
Natural circulation
Forced cooling using of fans, pumps, etc.

Cooling System

Cooling System

Cooling Arrangements and

Designations
Both the IEEE and the IEC established
standard designations for the various
cooling modes of transformers
The designation completely describes the
cooling method for the transformer, and the
cooling method impacts the response of the
transformer insulating oil to overload
conditions.

Cooling Arrangements and

Designation
(Contd).
DRY-TYPE TRANSFORMERS
Natural Cooling: type AN
Forced Cooling: type AF
OIL-IMMERSED TRANSFORMERS
Oil Circulation

Cooling Method

IEC Abbreviation

Natural Thermal
Head only

Air natural

ONAN

Air blast

ONAF

Forced Oil
Circulation by
Pumps

Air natural

OFAN

Air blast

OFAF

Water forced

OFWF

Transformer Loading And

Temperature Limits
Design standards express temperature
limits for transformers in rise above
ambient temperature.
The use of ambient temperature as a base
ensure a transformer has adequate thermal
capacity, independent of daily
environmental conditions.

Transformer Loading And

Temperature Limits (Contd)
The useful life of a transformer is
dependent on the life of its insulation,
which ages rapidly at elevated temperatures
To ensure a reasonable expectancy of life,
it is essential that the transformer is loaded
according to the prevailing ambient
temperature and also to the temperature of
the windings before loading.

Transformer Loading And

Temperature Limits (Contd)
Type

Insulation Class

Temperature Rise
(oC)

AN

60

AF

80

AN

150

ONAN

65

ONAF

65

OFAN

65

OFAF

65

OFWF

65

Tap Changing Facility

One of the simplest and most inexpensive
methods of providing for adjustments in
supply voltages is to arrange tapings on
transformer windings
Tapings are usually provided for the
following purposes:

Purposes of Tap Changers

For maintaining the secondary voltage constant
with a varying primary voltage.
For varying the secondary voltage.
Consumers terminal voltages are reduced on
account of impedance drops, and this necessitates
tap-changing facilities to effect a slight change in
the turn ratio.
Seasonal (5-10%), daily (3-5%) and short-period
(1-2%) adjustments are needed in accordance with
the corresponding variations of load.

Purposes of Tap Changers

(Contd)
For providing an auxiliary secondary voltage for a
special purpose, such as lighting
For providing a reduced voltage for starting
rotating machinery
Control of active and reactive power flow in the
power system network
For providing a neutral either for earthing, or for
dealing with out-of-unbalance current in singlephase, three-wire circuits, in three-phase four-wire
circuits, etc.

Tap Changing Modes

Off Load Tap Changing
On-Load Tap Changing.

Transformer Connections and

Vectors

The main connections to be considered are:

Primary Secondary
Y-Y, Y-Delta, Delta-Y, Delta- Delta
Y connections provide the opportunity for
multiple voltages, while Delta connections
enjoy a higher level of reliability (if one
winding fails open, the other two can still
maintain full line voltages to the load).

Transformer Connections
(Contd).
Probably the most important aspect of
connecting three sets of primary and
secondary windings together to form a
three-phase transformer bank is proper
winding phasing
The dots are used to denote polarity of
windings.

Transformer Maintenance
Three kinds of maintenance are normally
recognized:
Unscheduled maintenance- leads to inevitable
breakdown.
Ordinary maintenance repairs, adjustment and
replacement of parts shown to be necessary by
visual inspections made at irregular intervals:
Scheduled maintenance regularly scheduled
inspections and periodic dismantling or testing
of equipment to check every detail likely to
cause trouble.

Transformer Maintenance
(Contd)
The possibility of a fault occurring in a
transformer is NOT something remote.
In the light of this, the need to undertake
protective maintenance is obvious.
There are three types of protective
maintenance.

Protective Maintenance
Predictive maintenance
Preventive maintenance
Corrective maintenance

Predictive Maintenance
Predictive maintenance involves more
frequent monitoring (inspection and
testing) of critical equipment by location,
function and by operating environment.

Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance of transformers is an
integral part of an annual maintenance program.
It may involve monthly inspection, annual
energized testing of equipment (oil testing, gas-inoil analysis, infrared inspection), and deenergized biennial or triennial dismantling or
testing of equipment
To check every detail likely to cause trouble
(electrical insulation test, switchgear, and so forth)

Corrective Maintenance
Corrective maintenance is concerned with
units which have shown some definite
warning signals (such as cloudy oil or
unusual odour).
When equipment performance begins to
tail off and the deterioration so recognized,
corrective maintenance is carried out to
pinpoint the causes.

Important Insulation Oil Tests

Dielectric Breakdown Test

Neutralization Number/Acidity Test
Moisture Content Test
Interfacial Tension Test Oil Power Factor.

Insulation Oil Tests (contd)

Oil Colour Test

Visual Examination
Specific Gravity Test
Sediment in Transformer Oil Test
Dissolved Gas Analysis.

Dielectric Breakdown Test

Dielectric strength is a measure of the electrical
strength of a material as an insulator.
Dielectric strength is defined as the maximum
voltage required to produce a dielectric breakdown
through the material and is expressed as volts per
unit thickness.
The higher the dielectric strength of a material the
better its quality as an insulator. Instrumentation
available now for dielectric breakdown test is quite
compact and efficient.

Dielectric Breakdown Test

(Contd)
The primary tests that measures insulation quality
are ASTM D-877 and D-1816, D-924
The dielectric breakdown potential tests use two
electrodes of fixed geometry and a specified
separation.
D-877
Cap 10

D-1816
Cap 10

Dielectric Breakdown Test

(Contd)
Voltage is applied and uniformly increased at a
rate of approximately 3 kV/s (rms value) until
breakdown occurs.
When the current arcs across the gap, the voltage
recorded at that instant is the dielectric
breakdown strength of the insulating liquid.
For new oils, this is considered to be 35 kV or
above. Used oils would not be acceptable below
25kV.

Effect of Moisture on Dielectric

Breakdown
It is commonly acceptable that water that is
dissolved in the oil has a minimum effect on the
dielectric breakdown voltage.
Free water, on the other hand significantly lowers
the dielectric strength of the oil. The variation of
dielectric breakdown potential with moisture is
shown in Fig. Below.

Effect of Moisture on dielectric

Breakdown Diagram.

Moisture content Test

Mineral oil is hydrophobic and the amount
of water that will dissolve in oil is very
small.
The solubility of water in oil is dependent
on temperature as shown in Fig. Below.

Moisture Content Test Effect of

Temperature.

Moisture Content Test

The amount of moisture that can be dissolved in
oil increases rapidly as the oil temperature
increases as shown in Fig above
Therefore insulating oil purified at too high a
temperature may lose a large percentage of its
dielectric strength on cooling, because the
dissolved moisture is then changed to an
emulsion unless vacuum dehydration is used as
the purification process.

Moisture Content Test (Contd)

It is commonly accepted that water that is
dissolved in the oil has a minimum effect
on the dielectric breakdown voltage.
Free water, on the other hand significantly
lowers the dielectric strength of the oil.
The variation with moisture is shown in
Fig below.

Moisture content Test.

The maximum allowable moisture in oil
for different voltage levels are as shown in
table below:
Voltage level (kV)

Maximum moisture

5
15
35
69
> 138

30
30
25
20
15

Oil power Factor Test

The power factor indicates the dielectric loss
of the liquid and thus its dielectric heating.
The power factor test is used as an
acceptance and preventive maintenance test
for insulting liquid.
Liquid power factor testing in the field is
usually done with portable, direct-reading
power factor measuring test.

Other Transformer Tests

Turns and Polarity Tests

Insulation power Factor
Core Excitation Current
Polarization Index

Other Transformer Tests (Contd)

Insulation (AC) resistance

D.C. Winding Resistance
D.C. Over-potential
Core Ground
Ground Resistance.

Turns Ratio And Polarity Tests

Ratio and polarity tests are carried out on every
transformer to ensure that the turns ratio of the
windings is correct and also the tapping on any
of windings have been made at the correct
position.
The turns ratio test is primarily used as an
acceptance test. It is also useful as a tool for
investigating problems, as well as an integral
part of a routine maintenance program.

Turns Ratio And Polarity Tests

(Contd)
The turns ration does not tell how many turns of
wire are on the primary or secondary coil, but
only gives the ratio of the primary to secondary
turns.
During the manufacture of new transformers,
the turn ratio test is performed on all tap
positions to verify that the internal connections
are correct and that there are no short circuited
turns

Power Factor Tests (Contd)

Cellulosic insulation forms an effective capacitance
network
In each capacitance are dielectric losses which can be
conveniently represented by a resistor in series with a
capacitor.
The insulation power factor is commonly defined as
the ratio of the resistance R to the impedance Z of this
combination and can be measured by applying a
voltage across this capacitance and measuring the
amperes and watt loss and then calculating the power
factor.

Turn Ratio And Polarity Tests

(Contd)
During routine maintenance tests, the turns
ratio test could be performed to identify
short circuited turns, incorrect tap settings,
errors in turn count, mislabeled terminals,
and failure in tap changers.

Power Factor Tests

Insulation power factor should not be
confused with system power factor in an AC
network.
Insulation power factor provides an
indication of the quality of the insulation
Any winding in a transformer is separated
from all other winding and ground potential
by solid insulation

Power Factor Tests (Contd)

This measurable dielectric loss will
develop heat in the insulation during
transformer operation (in the equivalent
resistor) and his heat, along with moisture
and other factors can cause deterioration of
the insulation.

Core Excitation Current Test

Excitation current measurement is used for
Field detection of shorted turns and
Heavy core damage such as shorted
laminations or core bolt insulation
breakdown.

Polarization Index (PI)

The polarization index is obtained from the
dielectric absorption data.
Polarization index is the ratio of the 10
minute resistance to the 1 minute
resistance value
It is dimensionless and often used in
dielectric evaluation.

Polarization Index (PI) Guide

Polarization index Guide for Evaluation of
Transformer Condition.
Polarization Index

Condition

Less than 1.0

Dangerous

1.0-1.1

Poor

1.1 1.25

Questionable

1.25 2.0

Fair

Above 2.0

Good.