ABB Review Special Report - ABB - ABB Group

TransformingtransformingAdvanced transformer controland monitoring with TEC Lars JonssonGetting the most out of electrical equipment isvital to energy enterprises in today’s increasinglyderegulated world. With power transformersmaking up a substantial part of thatequipment, it is little wonder that utilities put apremium on enhancing the lifetime and performanceof these industry workhorses.Conventional control and monitoring schemesrely on past results – good enough, perhaps,for routine maintenance and non-critical units,but not to keep transformers performing constantly,and unfailingly, at the highest level.Not so ABB’s TrafoStar Electronic Control(TEC) system. This models the actual state ofthe transformer, creating a ‘virtual copy’ thatprovides the parameters required to optimizecooling as well as the data utilities need forcondition-based maintenance.Power transformers at critical nodes inelectricity networks lead stressfullives. Reliability is everything. Loadpeaks – predictable as well as unexpected– generate high temperatures, whichshorten component lifetime. In the worstcase sudden failure can occur, causinghavoc in the network. It is because ofthis risk, and the penalties that can attachto it, that utilities give such a high priorityto controlling and monitoring the statusand condition of their transformers.This lets them intervene before failure ormalfunctioning can occur. Increasingly,for many utilities, the watchword is ‘earlydetection of failure conditions’.Enter the ‘intelligent transformer’Deregulation of the energy markets hasbrought about a paradigm shift andfocused attention on, among otherthings, asset management and remaininglife management. As a result, anincreasing number of power transformersaround the world are being equip-Special ReportABB Review25