Sie ei etm TRANSFORMER TECHNOLOGY STATE-OF-THE ART AND TRENDS OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT R. Baehr, former Chairman of Study Commiffee 12 Transformers) Environmental and economical considerations | INTRODUCTION challenge the transformer industry to think about new technical concepts using non-cenventional materials for the insulation system and for the windings. The transformer is a mature technical product ‘and its life story is closely linked to the history of the application of electrical energy starting in the lest deceries of the 19th century, Bose on Just one fundamental physical prhciple. the induction kaw, the basic dosign features never changed since then, inspite of that thare is no other component with such high variety of applications ond parameters. Tronsformers are needed to feed most of the equipment and apparatus of our daily use Which fer cur portanal and public technical environment o5 well as high power industrial equipment for diverse applications. Power and voltage ratings range from VAs to GVAs and mv to My. Owed to such flexibilly the transformer Is the ‘most important ink for transmission and distribution ‘of slectrical energy from the producer fo the consumer. This paper will concentrate mainly on awar transinimers and thelr application \Wheteas the base design ond the prince slements of the honeomer — core, wincngs Inston stem =" temolned mote. er less Unchanged thre wat a femondous provement = ofthe speclc desgn charocletses ond properios 3 in the pad. Power rothgs ond vatage, level Inetoaod by sever ton of mognnude (ip) while telted cmendons and woight 2 wel os loses ond sound level decreoted clematcly ia) These inprevoments were cchieve oy the development ‘ond “opolcation of odvonced Pe oe ees eee arian ee EE In the last two decades the main cancem was focussed on higher efficiency, higher service reliability and more economic solutions, Herice development wus concentialing on operation, maintenance and life management and the Necessary tools and equipment for condition monitonng and diagnos. FIGURE | : Development of rated voltage and power. | 0198 = Octoter 200) ELECTRA TE2. STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT During the last century which might be called “the century of the engineers” the pride of engineers was to strive for the best technical solution. Now times have changed and engineers must deal with economics if they wont to act successfully in the world wide market. Deregulation and privatisation of the electrical ‘energy supply industry influenced the direction of development considerably. Concerning the transformer for a long time FIGURE 2 : Change of characteristics with time. economical considerations were limited to Fan inaemivn ; purchase price and loss evaluation with C aoe bu depreciation figures based on rather long pay-back etiod. say 20 years or more. Since low loss by physical law ‘equlles more material high loss evaluation figures can compensate for higher first 608? in the total cost evaluation when purchasing a w transformer, Evaluation figures vary in a wide 1g the local conditions regarai i MN Me vw BRSEREEETE Gpital, interest tate, depteciation nd cost of primary energy. loading time. sour haracteristic ete. Table 1 pi \oss evaluation figures of several counties with quite different economic conditions and not ail of them look very teasenable, but they are of eminent influence on the design and cost of the product, Tc give on example : if availablity of capital is the sfamount parameter it is not reasonable, bt misleading for the designer to specify high loss evaluation figures On the other hand © if the purchaser's decision is based on tite low losses may offer the best 1 In the past most of the parameters were egaided as fix during the lifetime of the transformer, but to day quick and unexpected changes of market conditions must be taken into h makes the evaluation more complicated. The rapid decrease of pay-back time as a consequence of shorter estimated service time in some ports of the world seems to be a most important change. By this change significant technical d icione are influenced, beginning with the design. the choice of material and ending up with changed maintenance strategies. Furthermore designing for shorter ifetime and less maintenanc may require more and better monitoring ond Giisgnostic tons To nin na inetenkedt unknown risks Improved methods to estimate condition and life ‘expectancy of the individual transformer have to TABLE 1 : Loss evaluation figures of transmission transformers be cleveloped. An inaispensabie preconaition for USD/AW. reliable lifetime estimation Is the availabilty and 1570-1150 A ELECTRA 1108 0evaluation of all accessible service data ~ in short ew approaches and new methods must be ‘developed and introduced in the design as well as in service. To cope with these economic demands R & D ‘octivities are shifting from technical improvement to low price products and trom product development 10 cost reduction activities. There is a danger that promising new projects with prospective long pay- back petiod are postponed or neglected in favour ‘of activities which promise good resutts in short time, In fact the progress in the product development has slowed down already in recent years. 3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TECHNOLOGY The impressive progress of transformer technology in recent dacader is based on two factors : improved characteristics of material, espesially core material, and development of advanced design tools, 3.1 Core Material The decisive factor for the impressive reductions in weight and losses was the continuous improvement of the core material. Starting with soft iron wire more than hundred years ago at the very beginning of the transformer age hot rolled sheets Of Fe-Si alloy were in use unfil the mid of the last century: The mos! inporlunt step towards low loss ‘nd high saturable material was the invention of cold rolled grain oriented transformer sheets. By Continous reduction of thickness, improved grain 8ze and otfentation, surface polishing, scratching and application of controlled mechanical stress the specific losies were reduced substantially (Ha.3) | parallel to the development of low loss material tho core dosign wae changed in orcior to make best use of the Improved properties. The use of advanced computer programs allows the thorough anaiysis of the magnetic field distribution in the core and the optimisation of the shape and configuration of the laminations especially in the joints The progress in core material and design did not only affect the no-load loss, but was most eneticial for ine optimisation of Me transtomer as 12 whole including dimensions. weight. load lass, efficiency and noise. nat to forget the secondary effects, e.g. cooling plant, space on site, transport conditions and fast but not least all kinds of economical benefits fee STATE-OF-THE ART PAPER Specicloss at 1.57 In spite of strong efforts non crystalline core material ~ though of considerably lower specific losses ~ was not able to replace the advanced grain etiented sheets. The application of amorphous steel topes is limited to distribution transformers, specially to smaller rated single-phese units where wound cores ate advantageous. &xtreme brittleness, mechanical sensitivity, cutting and stocking problems due to the thickness in the range of only 20 to 30 um and the necesslly of annealing In the magnetic field after the manufacturing process salem ferbe prohibitive for the cpnlication in Power transformers. Most of the advantage of the excellent loss values at low. induction is ‘compensated by the higher stacking factor and the lower saturation point where losses increase rapidly. Total cost evaluations demonstrate that there is only @ small segment characterised by high loss evaluation figures where these transformers might be competitive Under the pressure of stronger environmental requirements audible nose is of concem, Since the major source of transformer noise is rragnetostiction of the core lomination steel manufacturers startad to tp 195 Octsber 2001 ELECTUMA MM cow inves TO ELECTRA © develop material with higher Si content upto 6.5%. where magnetostrction disappears. When produced jn. @ conventional manner by roling Fe-material with more than 4% Si is extremely brittle. Only @ rapid quenching process can produce ductile material which can easly be handled by the transformer manufacturer. However high temperature annealing 's required to generate a texture which guarantees: ‘magnetic properties comparable fo those of normal grain oriented sheets of best quality. Recent information say that optimum power loss is achieved ‘at a thickness of about 0.1 mm. The saturation Polarisation is said to be 1.8 Tesla. Latest development work is concentrating on 3% ‘Si material with low magnetostriction, but without sacrificing the favourable loss properties of most advanced Fe-Si material. 3.2 Conductor Material Compared to the evolution of core material the progress in the area of conductor material was only marginal as far as conventional conductors are concemned. Nevertheless the introduction of continuously transposed conductors (CTC) Influenced the winding design essentially ana reduced the additional losses coused by eddy and circulating currents. In the past the broader application of CTCs was limited by the mechanical weakness of the bunch of single stands, but the problem was solved by the introduction of epoxy Coating of the strands and curing of the bundle during the drying process of the winding, Further improvement of the mechanical strength was achieved by additional hardening procedures uring the manufacturing process of tho strands which result in a controlled increase of the yield point of the copper conductor. For the application in \Wewinaings CTCs without dditional insulation of the bunch are in use which otter excellent cooling properties without jeopardising the insulation safety. Of future interest is the development of superconducting material. While the frst steps towards superconducting transformers using low temperature superconductors (LISC) were not vety promising due to the high demand of cooling power, the discovery of high temperature superconductors HSTC) reanitnated aclivilies in this field. The cilical temperature of these materials is above 80 K. Therefore liquid nitrogen (77 K) can be Used as coolant which reduces the expenciure for the cooling plant by one order of magnitude. At Present conductors based on ceramic. moterial embedded in silver can be manufactured at a length of several hundred meters ~ a precondition for the use in transformers. Ductile Bi-based superconductors which offer better workability and which do not need be embedded ae in the scope of new development programs. However the commercial application of superconductors in transformers will depend of further steps towards lower conductor price. 3.3 Insulation Material IHishighly remarkable that new insulation systems, based on plastics and synthetic fds were not able to substitute cellulosic materal, i.e. paper, fronstormer board, (aminaied) wood and mineral Of Gs the predominating insulation system for the majority oi power transforms Thisis due to the high reflabitty, tong ifetime and of course tne comparatively low price of the cll-celiulose syste, nly under sttonger environmental concitions (fie hazard, contamination of the ground water supply in residential and high populated areas) the combination of polymers fms and SF, gas wos introduced 0s an aitemative. 3.4 Advanced Design Tools and Manufacturing Processes The davelonmant of powerful computers and Mothematical methods and models allowed more precise prediction of electrical and mechanical stfesses including heat transfer and vibxations ‘Advanced calculation methods (Finite Flements) ate used to crete 2 —ar— dimensional field plots and to optimise the design of insulation structures and to check losses and vibrations in SITUCTUFO} parts of complicated geomelty (Fig. 4) as well as short citcuit capability and thermal performance. The voltage distibution under transient Conditions con be determined by calculation in the lime and frequency domain for aierent wave shapes and complex winding arrangements. ‘As a consequence dimensions and tolerances could be reduced substantially. At the same time rellabilty was improved and test and service failure ate Consicksably reduced, Manufacturing of power transformers Is stil mainly hand work done by skilled workers, Attempts to introduce automatic core stacking and winding Processes were not successful due to the high Variety of parameters and the low repetition rate of‘dentical units Nevertheless 100i and processes proved considerably with particular vopor-phase-drying under constant pressure, pre assembly of insulation structures. use of advanced connecting techniques and automatic control of the final drying and oil filing process were the most important steps to cut throughput time to a minimum, which is fegarded as the key factor of improved quality, delivery time and cost 4. NEW DESIGN CONCEPTS 4.1 Gas Insulated Transformers In the late fittes the idea came up for the fist time to use gas as insulation and coolant in the ‘ronstormer detig after SF6 hoc preven its excellent Gielectric properties in other HY equioment. Sst transformer applications were indoor distribution ransformers in public buildings because of smaller dimensions, nonflammabllity and non-explosive behaviou, ‘Mainly in Japan and its heavy populated urbon districts was there a strang demand fer the ‘extension of the HV transmission systems into large ccitles. Therefore the rating and the vottage range of gas-insulated transformers was increased step by step. in 1991 the first 300 MVA/275 KV gas insulated transformer was put into service. Further research resulted in @ 500 KV prototype transformer which passed all tests successfully The final aim is to realise [500 kV gos insulcted transformers of 1000 MVA class {for undetgound stations in urban districts, For small rated gas insulated istribution transformers SF, is used for both cooling and Insulation, Due to the fact that gases have much smaller thermal conductivity and heat capacity, the high efficient cooling effect of evaporation of liquids is used for gos insulated transformers of large rating. Pertiuorcarbon (C8150) le a proforod. coolant because of Its electrical compatibility with SF, and its excellent physical and chemical properties. The solid insulation is made of PPS (polypheny- lenesuifide), PEN (polyphenylenenaphtalate) or PET (polyethyleneterephtalate) fim, 4.2 Superconducting Transformers In spite of the fact that the efficiency of power transformers is extremely high - more than 99.5% for large units of modem design - there was always PAPER uriN Sia sila FIGURE 4 : Vibration mode of a 3-limb-core. strong demand to decrease the amount of toad toss which normally is roughly 3 to 4 fmes higher than the etoad loss. AN gary appIaach was to fun the transformer with conventional copper conductors at a temperature of opproximately -180 °C. Under such conditions the ohmic resistance of copper is only 30% of the 75°C value. in he beginning eighties a team at Westinghouse caried out a thorough feastoilty study on the use of superconducting windings in large ower fransforners. The result of the study was that the superconducting transformer exhibts very attractive properties. Only the problem of recovering to superconductviy rom normal conductivity after a fault could not be solved conveniently. in the meantime several manufacturers started development work and dasigned. constucted and tested prototype transformers with wincings made from low temperature superconductors (UISC) at ratings upto 1000 kVA. The service temperature Is 42 K. the tomporaturo of liquid He. Most technical problems were solved conveniently, bul expense for cooling and thermal insulation was rather high and prohibitive for the economical competitive appication Letecra 17SUNG MMe Nae conti nur The discovery of high temperature supercon- ductivity (HTSC) of some ceramic alloys and the development of suitable multi fioment wires of adequate length revived research work and stud- les of large power transformers using superconduc- tive windings at a service temperature of 77 K, the temperature of liquid N2. At this temperature level the expense for cooling decreases by one oder of magnitude. Two lines of development are pursued. A more futuristic approach presents the design of a ring- shaped coreless transformer. With the more conventional approach only the windings are made ftom superconductive material and housed ln @ separate cryostat ot the relevant low temperature necessary to maintain the supercon- ductivity of the windings. The core is built and cooled in a conventional manner. Prototypes up to 10 MVA we'e designed, smaller units were manufactured nd tested In the laboratory and in service Special attention is payed to traction transformers because of ight weight and low losses, both beneficial for high speed trains. Recent studies concerning the total cost of large: HSTC franstormers in comparison with conventional Unis are promising provided the progress te develop conductors of lower AC losses and lower cost continues and loss evaluation figures remain at the cuttent level. The inherent fault imiting feature combined with reduced transformer reactance ‘and the overload capability which isimited only by FIGURE 5 : Site installation of 3x1000 MVA / 1000kV prototype transformer. SW ELECTRA the refrigerator capacity permit optimum design and usation of the transmission system as a whole, Environmental compatibilty and nonfiammablity are additional arguments to continue development. Nevertheless there ate increasing restraints in view of short term economical considerations, 4.3 Other Non-conventional Designs The application of cable technologies opens new possibilities to increase the functionality of ‘transformers. The use of conventional PE cable as stator winding allows to combine power generation ‘and fist step of transformation in one unit instead of using @ conventional generator connected to a separate GSU-iransformex. A voltage level of 220 kV ‘and more is sold to be praciicatie. As a second option the cable technology Is used for drv-tvoe power transformers where oilfree, non-flammable, non-explosve transformers ore required A special technology for onsite assembly of large power transformers was developed for applications where close restrictions in transport ‘weight and dimensions do not allow conventional transportation to site. This technology includes specific procassing of the prefabricated winclings core stacking, assembly, drying and final testing on site, While the development towards higher ratings ‘and higher voltage stagnated duting the last two decades Tokyo Flactric Power Company (IEPCO) is planning to begin commercial operation ot Japan's first 1 000 kV transmission sytems in the beginning of the 2st century. Prototype transformers of 3 000 MVA / 1 000 kV were already designed, produced, delivered ond tested under service conditions in a field test station (Fig 5). 5. VISION OF FUTURE TRENDS Study Committee 12 recently started an inquiry on the futue needs conceming the application ‘and development of transformers in. view of the important changes in the energy supply market. The Majority of responses ftom diferent parts of the world. but mainly from westem. industrialised Countries was focused apart from the ain, trends of *hordware development on “soft” topics os'@ the impact of decentralised power genero- tion on transformers '® ‘reliability and maintenance for more eco- omic usage of assets '@ lack of qualified engineering stat. The effect of decentralsation will presumably strengthen the tendency towords smatior rated transformers and probably decrease the number of transformation steps in the grid. Where Improved ower quality and fast reaction to disturbances in the network are required electronic devices may replace the classic transformer, ¢.9. FACTS, electronic voltage regulators. voriable shunt reactors, electronic tap changers etc. By this the total number of transformers could be reduced in the future. In the past many countries applied the n + 1 philosophy fo ensure safe energy supply. in view of ‘the stronger competition of privatised suppliers and. due to the open, deregulated market the sofety philosophy is reconsidered. The aim is to replace spore copacity by preventive condition based 12-202. Pes 2000, tical considerations”. CIGKE Mopar 12-203, Pans 2000. [= stenponien ot a."ernanced ciognoss of power transformers using on-ond oft.ine methods: results, examples ond | future tronds".CIGRE Paper 12.204 Pes 2000 JJ © senes ot ol, “Cusent imitation in high temperature syperconducling Transformers and impact on the grt”, CIGRE: Paper 12-206, Pas 2000, [= vvomagate et at. "Development and feld New Death | RBoohr."Recent and future de Metbourne 1997. REFERENCES CIGRE WG 12.20" conomics of transtoxner manager "=D Bonmann, "Superconducting transtormers- benetits of upgrading and future electrical networks” Key note CIGRE SC12 Power Transformer Caloguium, Budapest 14-16 June, 1090, = N.LFontana.L Pettersson, “Transformer fe assessment and condition manitaring ~ tools and cases". Proceedings of Intern. Centon Power Transformers, New Delhi, 6-7 Apri, 2000. A Joists ef ol."A major breakthrough in transformer technology” .CIGRE Paper 12-101,Peris 2000 = PBloss et al.”Economica| aspects and practical experience of power fransfotmet on-line monitoring”, CIGRE Pope "= C.Bedur et ol, “the design.construction and epetation of high temperature superconducting hransformers - prac-| ‘of 1000 kV / 3000 MVA transformer”. CIGRE Paper 12-308, Pais 1998, = R.Boshr. How to ebtain high performing power hransformers in service. Key nate CRIP Int. Cont. Apt 6/7, 2000 in| /elopment of power transformers”, Key note, Meeting of the Austiaan CIGRE NC. ema maintenance to safeguard the same level of reliability. Modem monitoring and communication tools and the development of high sophisticated ‘evaluation methods - e.g. leaming systems, fuzzy logic ~ offer the opportunity for mere reliable statistical and individual forecasting of the remaining life of transformers in various scenarios ‘and for supporting decisions on service atternatives and optimised maintenance strategies. The development of such tools requires close cooperation between manufacturers and customers and the success wil mostly depend on the availabilty and quailty of data: hence an open- ‘book-policy of both parties will be indispensable. Leaming expert systems will support the efforts {or reliability and safe supply, but its questionable If such systems can totally replace the experience of qualified engineers. Therefore the management must take care of adequate well educated and experienced engineering capacity. As a contribution to the education of engineers Study Committee 12's going to offer tutorials on speciiic topics of transformer technology and operations. i MoM Budapest meeting, June 13,1999; internal pape