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Conference Record of the 2004 IEEE Intemational Symposium on Electrical Insulation, Indianapolis, IN USA, 19-22 September 2004

A Novel System for the Prolongation of the Lifetime of Power Transformers by Reduced Oxidation and Aging
V. Wasserberg, H. Borsi, E.Gockenbach
University of Hannover, Schering Institute Callinstrasse 25 A, D-30163HaMover, Germany

Volker.Wasserberg@mbox.si.uni-hannover.de
Abstrad: One of the key components of electrical power

distribution networks are power transformers. The Insulation of these devices usually consists of mineral oil and cellulose based solid material Although long time experience has shown, that this kind of insulation is very reliable, it is also well known, that It is exposed to aging. Two major factors, accelerating the aging, are water and oxygen. The rate of water adsorption and the presence of oxygen mainly depend on the construction of the transformer. In Europe, most of the power transformers are of free breathing type. Aging tests have shown, that the rate of aging of insulating materials in contact with oxygen is higher, thus the aging of free breathing transformers is higher, too. To achieve a reduced rate of aging the contact of the insulating materials with the environment has to be stopped, thus the insulating materials have to be separated from the atmosphere. The conversion of a free breathing transformer into a sealed one to accomplish this obligation is expensive and usually affords a transport of the transformer to an adequate workshop to install a membrane In the conservator. For an aged transformer with an already severely degraded insulation such a renovation is not always efficient, especially if the costs of the treatment are compared to the prolongation of the Lifetime resulting thereof. A novel idea for the lifetime prolongation of free breathing power transformers, that can be installed with minor expenditure on site, is presented in this contribution. The insulation is covered with a nonpolluting layer of a gas heavier than air, thus creating a flexible blanket which hampers the uptake of water and excludes oxygen from the insulation. Experiments on the aging behavior and on the electrical and dielectrical properties of the insulating materials under the covering gas are presented and the results of these tests are discussed under the aspects of a least affected transformer operation.

oil has shown to be the favorite choice, although for special applications also different combinations of alternative insulating liquids and of solid insulation materials immersed therein are in use. History has shown, that the oil impregnated cellulose insulation is very reliable, but it is also well known, that it is exposed to aging. Oxidation and hydrolysis are, besides the pyrolysis originating from the operation temperature, the major aging factors. In Europe and especially in Germany most of the power transformers are of free breathing type, thus atmospheric oxygen and water that passes through the desiccator, accelerate the degradation of the insulating system. During the last decade the European energy market has been deregulated and liberalized, thus forcing the utilities to exploit their equipment up to the end of its usability to achieve maximum profit. As a failure of a power transformer may cause immense consequential costs not only for the failed equipment but also for the discontinuity of energy supply to the customer, lifetime extension and operation reliability enhancement strategies are of increasing interest.

MOTIVATION
As an example, Figure 1 shows the age distribution of the power transformers of a large German utility [I]. Most of the power transformers actually in use have reached an age of 30 years or even more, which is the lifetime, they were originally been designed for. In the past, the concept of transformer operation has been different from the situation today. Most transformers have been escorted by a backup transformer of similar size, thus these transformers did not operate at maximum or even nominal load and insulation aging has been low due to the low operation temperature resulting in reduced pyrolysis. The mentioned concept of operation with a backup transformer is not always continued any more as this binds high expenses in the surplus transformer. Moreover it is now tried to operate the transformers at maximum load, thus to achieve optimized profit but also resulting in higher operation temperatures and increased aging. With increased temperature, oxygen and water intensify their impact on insulation aging as well. While the insulating liquid can be refurbished quite easily by drying, degassing, deacidification or even replacement, a destroyed solid

INTRODUCTION
Transformers are one of the key components of electric power distribution and transmission systems. This statement is especially valid for power transformers, where an outage possibly endangers the reliability of electrical energy supply and always affords unpredictable expenses. The trustiness of a power transformer is to a high extent limited by the reliability of the winding insulation system. Besides its function as an insulation, the liquid has to operate as a heat transfer m e d i m disposing the losses out of the core and the windings. For power transformers a liquid immersed parous solid insulation therefore is the optimum choice. Due to cost aspects a combination of cellulosic paper and mineral

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in contact with it. In the following some results of these experiments are presented, starting with the ,effects on the main feature, the aging behavior of the insulating liquid.
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EFFECTS ON THE AGING OF THE LIQUID

The experiments have been performed with a mineral insulating oil as it is commonly used for transformers. 30 years ago, when the considered transformers had been constructed, mineral oil has been the preferred kind of liquid insulation for transformers. The completely sealed desiccators, in which the samples had been stored, could either be sealed or floated with dried air or CO2.Figure 2 shows a photograph of an desiccator as it has been used for the accelerated aging of the samples. Together with 5 liters of the liquid 5 S O g of transformer insulating paper and 15 g of copper, iron, aluminum and zinc (thus representing typical transformer construc'tion' material) had been artificially aged in an oven. The samples had been exposed to a temperature of 105 "C for 1000 hours and a temperature of 150 "C for another 87 hours, thus to simulate operation beyond nameplate rating. Figure 3 shows a photograph of the samples in a tube before and after aging. As Figure 3 shows COz reduces the aging of the liquid as it, beside other effects, manifests in the brighter color of the samples 5 to 8. It can also he seen, that a constant flow of gas over the surface of the sample resulted in a superior reduction of aging as these samples ( 5 , 6 ) are brighter than the samples tilled with CO2 and sealed afterwards (7,8). In those samples CO2 had been dissolved in the liquid wherefore the pressure in the desiccator reduced to about 900 Wa after the aging. An explanation for the superior aging behavior of the samples aged under streaming CO2 can be found in the declining water content of the samples, that led to a drying and thus to a reduced hydrolysis. The stream of dry CO2 desiccated the samples, thus the water content at the end of .the aging has been significantly reduced while the humidity of all other samples increased during aging.

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Figure 1 Age distribution of the power transformers of a larpe German utilitv. insulation is in most cases synonymous to a complete destruction of the transformer. .. A well-known and common way to exclude water and oxygen originating from the atmosphere is the sealing of the transformer vessel. To compensate volume variations of the insulating liquid caused by the different temperatures, gas filled balloons or flexible membranes are used: Nevertheless the supplementary addition of such a device to a transformer, that has originally been designed as a free breathing type is complicated, expensive and requires long time transformer outages or even a transport to the workshop. Simply sealing the vessel and inserting an inert gas may lead to increased pressure inside the vessel, thus leading to a higher adsorption of gas in the liquid and to the appearance of gas bubbles in the case of a rapid transformer cooling down [ 2 ] . Additionally sealing the vessel would make it becoming a pressure tank, thus resulting in additional restrictions concerning approval, authorization and technical inspection.

NEW SYSTEM
An alternative to the installation of a membrane would be the application of a "flexible cover" on top of the insulating liquid that hampers the uptake of water and excludes oxygen from the liquid. It should be lighter th'an the liquid but heavier than air and it must not affect the electrical and dielectrical properties of the insulating system of the transformer. It should also be easily applicable to transformers in service without the necessity for serious modifications of the transformer design. A gas, that fulfills these requirements, is Carbon Dioxide CO2, which is: - heavier than air - inert - non toxic - cheap - capable to absorb water wherefore experiments have been performed, whether it affects the electrical and dielectric properties of the insulants

Figure 1 -Photogaph of the used desiccator with cellulose and catalvsts but without oil.

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Figure 3 - Photograph of the samples in a tube (after aging).

ELECTRICAL AND DIELECTRICAL MEASUREMENTS

As an overview on the achieved results a comparison between the new, non-aged oil, the oil aged under air stream, aged under CO2- stream and samples which had been exposed to 500 hours of air stream before they were exposed to another 500 hours of CO2coverage are depicted. The basic parameter, characterizing the capabilities of an insulant, is the breakdown voltage, which is, according to IEC 60156 [3], measured between two spherical electrodes with a distance of 2.5 mm. The applied voltage has been increased with a gradient of 2 k V k The tests presented by Figure 4 have been performed for temperatures between 20 and 80 "C and show the average of 12 measurements for each sample and temperature. As Figure 4 depicts, the samples exposed to CO2 have an increased breakdown strength compared to the samples aged under air. The water content of all samples has been below 20 ppm, thus the breakdown strength is almost constant for each sample within the regarded temperature range. If the water content would have been higher a saturation would have been seen at lower temperatures, thus resulting in a decline of the breakdown voltage at 20 "C. The Partial Discharge Inception Voltage (PDW) is a wellapproved tool to characterize alterations of the chemical

Figure 5 - Results of the P D N measurements.

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composition of a liquid. The experiments presented here have been performed in accordance with the IEC 61294 [4], but on a needle-sphere electrode configuration with a sphere of 12:s mm diameter. The voltage has been incremented by 1 kVis using a motor driven transformer until the first partial discharges above 50 pC could be continuously detected. The tests have been repeated 20 times and Figure 5 shows the averaged results of the measurements at room temperature. Thereof it becomes clear, that the application of CO2 also increases the resistance against partial discharges. The reason for the superior electrical behavior of the samples aged under CO2 may be, that the aging of the insulation under oxygen generates solid components, which could also be observed during the inspection of the samples as depicted by Figure 3. This contamination may become the source for the initiation of partial discharges, for a rising voltage as it has been applied for these tests thus resulting in lower PDrVs. For the initiation of breakdowns also solid contaminants can be the source, thus this hypothesis also explains the higher breakdown voltage of the samples with a total or temporary exclusion from the oxygen of the air. With the measurement of the relative permittivity E, and of the dissipation factor tan 6, the dielectric characteristics of the liquid are summarized. While the relative permittivity has shown to be almost constant over the whole temperature range and for all examined samples, the dissipation factor showed significant deviations concerning the increase of the tan 6 over the temperature. Figure 6 shows the results of these tests that have been performed in accordance with the IEC 60247 [SI using a Schering bridge. For clearness reasons the diagram depicts only the results of the samples permanently aged under air and under CO2 in comparison to the results for new, non- aged oils. For all temperatures the dissipation factor of the samples exposed to CO2 has been lower than the values of the samples exposed to air although they were higher than the results gained for new oil. As the tan 6 is a measure for the resistivity of the liquid, the result leads to the assumption, that polar

Figure 4 -Results of the breakdown voltage measurements

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cellulose aging. This indicator will he falsified if CO2 is used as blanket. But as there are other, more modem procedures for the analysis of the cellulose status like the HPLC analysis for fnranic components dissolved in the insulating liquid, the use of the CO2 / CO quotient is dispensable. Some authors like [7] even prefer the HPLC method as the CO2 / CO quotient may lead to erroneous results in some cases.

CONCLUSIONS
The experiments have shown, that the use of CO2 leads to the desired effects of reduced aging of the insulating liquid. This effect is concurrent to the amount of available gas, thus the aging is the lowest with free flowing gas over the surface of the liquid. The electrical and dielectrical properties of +e insulating liquid are improved due to the application of the gas because the degradations caused by the aging are reduced due to the reduced aging resulting out of the gas coverage. Measurements of the water contents of the insulating liquid samples before and after aging have also shown, that the streaming CO2 gas lead to a reduction of the samples: water content as the dry gas out of the cylinder gathered water out of the liquid and emitted it from the test vessel. This insulating desiccation is an additional benefit when using a CO2 blanket as proposed, also when it is applied to a transformers: conservator. With the new system, not only the oxidation but also the hydrolysis is thus reduced, both resulting in a gain of lifetime for the transformer.

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Figure 6 - Results of the measurement of the dissipation factor tan 6 over the temperature.

components like acids had been generated during the aging and that this effect can he limited by the application of CO2.

INFLUENCE ON TRANSFORMER OPERAT10N

The application of a COz blanket on top of the oil level inside a breathing transformers conservator is easy and demands almost no modification of the transformer construction. The only precautions, that have to be made, is to avoid pressure generation in the conservator and to achieve a low, hut continuous flow of CO2 over the surface of insulating liquid in the conservator to achieve maximum efficiency. As CO2 usually is delivered as a liquid in compressed gas cylinders of 20 kg the usage of several cylinders in parallel will last for several months until a replacement is necessary. Figure 7 schematically shows such an application. The application of COz gas will also affect~the balance of gas the transformer insulating liquid. As the sealed samples had shown, the insulating liquid dissolves gas, thus leading to the observed pressure reduction. According to IEC 60599 [6] the quotient of CO2 to CO is an indicator for the degree of

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Mr. Lars Hoppe for performing the majority of the presented experiments as a part of his diploma thesis.

REFERENCES
[ I ] M. Stach, Economic aspects of asset- management in the age of
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Figure 7 - Schematic representation of a Colblanketed conservator.

hsion (paper in German language), Micafil- Symposium, Stuttgart, Germany, March 2002 [2] L.R. Lewand, How to reduce the Rate of Aging of Transformer Insulation, NETA World Special Feature Article, Spring 1995 [3] IEC 601 56, Insulating liquids - Determinationof the breakdown voltage at power frequency - Test method, 1996 [4] IEC 61294, Insulating liquids - Determination of the partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) - Test procedure, I993 [SI IEC 60247, Measurement of relative permittivity, dielectric dissipation factor and d.c. resistivity of insulating liquids, 1996 [6] IEC 60599, Mineral oil-impregnated electrical equipment in service - Guide to the intemretation of dissolved and free eases analysis, 1999 171 M. Duval. A Review of Faults Detectable bv Gas-in-Oil Analysis in Transformers, IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine Vol. is, No. 3, pp. 8 - 17,2002

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