Energy Reports 8 (2022) 9038–9045

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Energy Reports
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/egyr

Research paper

Health index for power transformer condition assessment based on

operation history and test data
∗
Hong Guo a , , Lei Guo b
a
School of Economics & Management, Northwest University, Xi’an, China
b
State Grid Shaanxi Electric Power Company, Xi’an, China

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: Transformers are key equipment in a power grid. The stability of the power system is depending
Received 5 March 2022 more and more on the safety and reliability of transformers. Health Index (HI) is a practical tool
Received in revised form 1 July 2022 that combines complex condition data into a single value as a comparative indication of the overall
Accepted 9 July 2022
condition of a transformer. Most of the existing health index procedures are based on laboratory or
Available online xxxx
on-site test data, with few considering the actual operating time. In this research, a comprehensive
Keywords: assessment method of transformer operating condition is proposed. Based on the HI model, this
Transformers method the first considers the aging process of the transformer insulation as well as the load and
Condition assessment operating environment to form the theoretical health index HI1 . The aging process is characterized by
Health index model the operating time of the transformer, the load rate, and the pollution level. The test health index HI2
Sustainable operation
is then formed based on on-site tests. The final health index HI is obtained with the combination of HI1
and HI2 to characterize the health condition of the transformer. To make sure the proposed method can
be readily adapted in the field, only traditional parameters with well-established interpretations are
required. This method has been applied to assess multiple 330kV transformers in service and provided
a useful method to transformer asset management.
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction of the transformer. Health Index (HI) is considered to be the

Power transformers play an important role in power sys-
tems. The long-term reliability of transformers is related to the
safety and stability of the power system. Power transformers are
also one of the most expensive electrical equipment in power
systems. Condition assessment is an important part of trans-
former asset management. By assessing the overall condition
of the transformer, valuable information can be provided to fa-
cilitate maintenance, investment, and equipment replacement
(Cigre, 2019; Senoussaoui et al., 2021; Lin et al., 2020; Poonnoy
et al., 2021).
Transformers can be divided into oil-paper insulation trans-
formers, dry-type insulation transformers. Large power trans-
formers are oil-paper insulation transformers. This paper focuses
on oil-paper insulation transformers with mineral oil as liquid
insulation material. The condition of a transformer can be as-
sessed with various specific detections such as partial discharge
measurement, dissolved gas analysis, and oil quality. However,
these detections only reflect the performance of a certain aspect
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: guohong@nwu.edu.cn (H. Guo), guolei@sn.sgcc.com.cn
(L. Guo).
most effective and reasonable method for evaluating the overall
condition of a transformer (Naderian et al., 2009). HI is a useful
tool that combines the result of various aspects, including oper-
ating observations, field inspection, on site and laboratory tests.
It can determine the transformer condition and provide technical
information for utility operators.
In this paper, transformer HI is calculated considering the
aging of the transformer, operation data, and on-site test data.
The aging of the transformer is determined by not only the oper-
ation time but also the designed life. The operating data includes
loading and pollution level of the transformer. This information
indicate basic condition of the transformer and is an important
part of transformer condition assessment. On-site test data can
reflect the current condition of the transformer, and therefore is
also indispensable towards the transformer condition assessment.
To improve the on-site operability, this method only adopts rou-
tine test items with clearly defined interpretations available in
established standards, such as dissolved gas in oil, dielectric loss,
oil quality test, etc.
2. Related studies
Condition assessment is an important issue for the mainte-
nance and asset management of power transformers. For the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.07.041
2352-4847/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
H. Guo and L. Guo
overall condition assessment, HI is a practical method at present.
HI combines multiple condition quantities into a single value
to reflect the overall condition of a transformer. In general, HI
method calculates the HI value through weighted summation
of different factors. Examples of these factors include dissolved
gas analysis (DGA), chemical and physical oil analysis, visual
inspection results, furan concentration, and parameters obtained
from electrical measurements.
Naderian et al. proposed a HI calculation method to carry
out the condition assessment for transformers using parameters
such as DGA, oil quality, furan, etc. are adopted and scores and
ranks them to form the HI value (Naderian et al., 2009). Patryk
carried out HI calculation adopting regular oil test, including
physical and chemical properties, DGA, and furan (Bohatyrewicz
et al., 2019; Bohatyrewicz and Mrozik, 2021). Jahromi designed a
scoring and ranking method adopting 24 parameters to calculate
HI (Jahromi et al., 2009). Ref. Kittan et al. (2018) summarized ex-
isting transformer condition assessment methods, and it pointed
out that condition assessment techniques should make good use
of all easily available information and merge all relevant tech-
nologies for transformer diagnosis. However, in actual operation,
not all transformer condition quantities can be obtained. In order
to reduce the complexity of power transformer assessment, a
method for selecting effective features of transformer HI was
studied. Through benchmarking various classification models, it
was demonstrated that water content, acidity, breakdown volt-
age, and furan are the most influential parameters for determin-
ing transformer HI (Benhamed et al., 2018). In addition to the
body parameters, assessment methods which consider the oper-
ation and accessory status were also proposed. Ref. Jiang et al.
(2017) established a HI model based on performance analysis,
considering the correlation between the voltage level, tempera-
ture, rainfall, and other influencing factors. Each factor is scored
according to the environment in which the transformer is located
to assess the risk of specific defects. Various parameters of the
subsystems of insulation, iron core, winding, bushing and tap
changer are measured and integrated to assess the overall health
of the transformer in service (Islam et al., 2018). According to the
characteristics of the transformer, the core dynamic parameters
that can reflect the condition of the transformer are measured,
including load, dissolved gas in oil, partial discharge, infrared
detection, core ground current, and vibration, based on which the
HI is calculated (Wang et al., 2020).
In addition to adopting offline data to create HI model, some
studies use online data to calculate HI. Ballal established an online
condition assessment of transformers through a condition moni-
toring system to determine the risk of accidental failure and the
availability of capacity, to reduce the life cycle cost of the trans-
former (Ballal et al., 2019). The combination of physical winding
degradation model, HI model based on condition monitoring data,
and end of life model based on statistics were used to obtain the
condition of transformer in Foros and Istad (2020).
For the ranking method of HI calculation, how to determine
the weight of each test is highly subjective, often relying on
expert experience. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are con-
sidered potential solutions for this problem. Such algorithms
include Fuzzy logic, SVM, Neural Networks (Ashkezari et al., 2013;
Prasojo et al., 2020). Ibrahim adopted Cat Swarm Optimization
(BCSO) technique to calculate the HI based on DGA and oil quality
measurement (Ibrahim et al., 2016). A comprehensive decision-
making model for transformer condition assessment was pro-
posed in Sun et al. (2016), which combines the advantages of
fuzzy set theory, game theory, and improved evidence. An inte-
grated model based on fuzzy method and evidence-based rea-
soning decision method was proposed in Liao et al. (2011). A
set of index assessment system was established that compre-
hensively considers the main body, casing, and accessory parts.
9039
Energy Reports 8 (2022) 9038–9045
Then, the Cauchy membership function was used to divide the
fuzzy grade (Tian et al., 2019). AI based methods generally need
complex algorithms and involve establishing a database with
hundreds of transformer data for a given diagnosis factor. Cur-
rently, AI based HI methods are generally too complicated and
unpractical. In addition to technical parameters, some researchers
considered the economical parameters and proposed condition
assessment methods involving economical factors (Zeinoddini-
Meymand and Vahidi, 2016; Haema and Phadungthin, 2013).
In summary, most of the parameters selected for HI calculation
are from various chemical and electrical test data. However, other
parameters such as the design life, operating time, and operating
environment of the transformer are rarely fully considered. In
other words, current condition assessment methods only consider
test parameters of the transformer without considering the aging
state. However, transformers with different aging states can have
the same test data, although practically their condition assess-
ment results should be different. In the long-term operation of
a transformer, due to thermal stress, the solid insulating mate-
rial will gradually age, which will in turn reduce its mechanical
strength, resulting in a decrease in its anti-short circuit capability.
The existing HI calculation methods focus more on chemical
and electrical tests during operation. However, the decrease in
mechanical strength due to the aging of the transformer has been
ignored. This study shows that HI calculation from only the aspect
of dielectric strength is not enough for transformer condition
assessment. It is also necessary to consider the aging process of
the transformer, that is, the impact of the operating history on
the overall performance of the transformer.
3. Proposed method
3.1. Health index model
In this paper, HI of a transformer is a numerical value that
characterizes the health condition of the transformer based on its
design life, aging process, operating environment, and test results.
Generally, a single value continuously varying from 0 to 10 is used
to characterize the conditions of the transformer. The smaller the
value, the better the transformer condition. Its meaning is further
illustrated in Fig. 1.
The HI proposed in this paper can be calculated by formula
(1):
HI = f (HI1 , HI2 ) (1)
where HI is the health index of the target transformer. HI1 is
the theoretical health index calculated according to the operating
time, design life, load, and environment. HI2 is the test health
index obtained according to various test items. The range of each
index (HI, HI1 , HI2 ) is 0∼10.
According to formula (1), the HI can be calculated accord-
ing to the design and operating parameters of the transformer
and the test results. This method also contains multiple thresh-
olds, coefficients, and weights which need to be determined. The
thresholds for certain parameters are determined according to
related standards from IEC, GB, IEEE. etc. Coefficients and weights
are determined based on expert experience. In order to determine
those coefficients and weights, we invited 50 experts to score and
obtain the average value. In addition, results of previous related
studies were used as reference. The final values were determined
by combining expert scores and related research results.
H. Guo and L. Guo Energy Reports 8 (2022) 9038–9045

Fig. 1. Health Index value of transformer.

3.2. Theoretical health index

Power transformers usually adopt oil-paper insulation struc-

ture. Besides the primary function as transformer insulation, the
insulating paper also provides mechanical support. Insulating
paper gradually ages due to thermal stresses. More specifically,
insulating paper is composed of cellulose, the aging of which
is a thermal chemical fracture reaction called pyrolysis process.
Pyrolysis will then cause a decrease in the degree of polymer-
ization (DP) value of insulating paper, and DP value reflects the
mechanical strength of transformer and is commonly used to
characterize the life of the transformer. When a transformer is
just put into operation, the initial DP value exceeds 1200, which
reduces to 250 when transformer reaches the end of life. When
the DP value is lower than 250, even if the insulation perfor-
mance of the insulating paper appears to be good, its mechanical
strength has been severely reduced, resulting in insufficient anti-
short circuit ability of the transformer, indicating that the life of
the transformer has reached the end.
The research of Emsleye et al. demonstrated that the DP value
of transformer insulating paper decreases exponentially with
time, as shown in formula (2) (Emsley et al., 1997).
1 1 k10
− = (1 − e−k2 t ) (2)
DPt DP0 k2
where DP0 is the initial value, DPt is the value at t time, k10 and
k2 are rate constants.
When calculating the theoretical health index HI1 , e ther-
mal aging of the oil-paper insulation in operation is considered,
as well as the operating environment and load changes of the
equipment.
Based on the decreasing law of DP value, an exponential
function is used to model the theoretical health index as shown
in formula (3):
HI1 = HI0 × eB×T (3)
where HI1 is the theoretical health index value, HI0 is the initial
health index of the transformer, generally taken as 0.5, B is the
aging coefficient, and T is the operating time. This provides an
exponential model, as can be seen in Fig. 2. As the operating time
increases, its value will increase exponentially.
The range of the theoretical health index is 0–10, with the
lower values indicating better transformer conditions. More
specifically, HI1 between 0 and 3 indicates that the transformer
is in good condition while HI1 between 3 and 7 indicates that
the transformer condition has begun to deteriorate. When HI1 is
greater than 7, it indicates that the transformer is already in bad
condition and the probability of failure will increase significantly.
9040
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of health index aging model.
It can be seen from formula (3) that the aging coefficient B is
as key parameter for the calculation of theoretical health index.
From formula (3), we can obtain formula (4):
ln HI1 / ln HI0
B= (4)
T
When T reaches the design life of the transformer Texp , its
health condition deteriorates significantly and HI1 will reach the
upper limit value of 10. With the initial health index HI0 of the
transformer taken as 0.5 as mentioned above, and the following
formula can be obtained which shows that the aging coefficient
B is determined by the Texp .
ln 10/ ln 0.5
B= . (5)
Texp
The design life of a transformer is the effective use time when
the transformer is designed. However, its actual operating life can
be different, being affected by the load and the operating environ-
ment. The load determines the internal heat of the transformer
insulation. The load factor fL and the environmental factor fE can
be used to correct the aging coefficient B, as discussed below.
3.2.1. Load factor coefficient fL
The load current flows through the high and low voltage wind-
ings, which affects the temperature of the transformer. The loss
and efficiency of the transformer is also different with different
load level. The transformer load rate β is the ratio of the historical
average operating load in the span of transformer service time S
to the rated capacity of the transformer Se as shown in formula
(6).
S
β= × 100% (6)
Se
H. Guo and L. Guo Energy Reports 8 (2022) 9038–9045

Table 1 Table 3
Transformer load factor coefficient. Dissolved gas thresholds and weight.
Transformer load rate (%) Load factor coefficient fL Gas Thresholds (µL/L) Weight (Wi )
0∼60% 1 Lower limit Upper limit
60%∼80% 1.1 H2 50 150 2
80%∼100% 1.25 CH4 30 130 3
100%∼120% 1.6 C2 H 6 20 90 3
C2 H 4 60 280 3
C2 H 2 0 5 5
Table 2
CO 400 600 1
Transformer environmental factor coefficient.
CO2 3800 14 000 1
Pollution level Environmental factor coefficient
Very light 1
Light 1.05
Medium 1.1
Heavy 1.15
Very heavy 1.3

Based on the load rate of the transformer, the load factor coeffi-
cient fL can then be obtained, as shown in Table 1.

3.2.2. Environmental factor coefficient fE

Different regions have different environmental pollution lev-
els. Pollution levels have a great impact on the operating and
service life of transformers. In areas with severe pollution, such as
areas near cement plants, the dust content in the air has a great
influence to the external insulation. The transformer environmen- Fig. 3. Ascending function.
tal factor coefficient is determined according to the pollution level
of the area where the transformer is operating (IEC, 2008), as
shown in Table 2.
The grades value S is also from 0 to 10, where a and b
The final theoretical health index can be obtained as formula
represent the lower limit and upper limit of the test results,
(7).
respectively. The expression of the ascending function is shown
HI1 = HI0 × eB×fL ×fE ×T = 0.5 × eB×fL ×fE ×T (7) in formula (8).
0≤x<a
⎧
HI1 is a theoretical health index value calculated considering 0
π
⎪
a+b
⎪
the aging process of transformer oil-paper insulation and pol-
⎨
H = 5 + 5 sin( (x − )) a≤x≤b (8)
lution level. It reflects the deterioration of mechanical strength ⎪ b−a 2
of the transformer during long-term operation due to thermal
⎪
b<x
⎩
10
aging of the insulating paper. HI2 is then derived in the following
section to further estimate the operation condition by taking into According to the grades value S and weight W of each gas, the
consideration specific tests of the transformer. dissolved gas index can be calculated with formula (9).
∑7
i=1 Si × W i
3.3. Test health index DGAF = ∑7 (9)
i=1 Wi
The HI2 index is determined based on the specific tests of
a transformer. The model proposed in this paper can include 3.3.2. Oil quality index
all or part of the tests related to the transformer. While some There are many parameters that characterize the oil quality.
parameters can be correlated, each individual parameter provides However, due to the complicated measurement process, some
its own unique information. Therefore, in this paper, correlation parameters are not typically tested during transformer operation.
among different parameters is neglected and all parameters are This paper uses only the commonly measured parameters. The
considered independent. Each parameter will be assigned an in- upper limit and lower limit of oil quality test values and its
dex value based on the test results. For example, the dissolved gas weight are shown in Table 4 (IEC, 2020).
index can be established based on the dissolved gas test results, It should be noted that the breakdown voltage is characterized
and the partial discharge index can be established based on the by a descending function as shown in Fig. 4 and its expression
partial discharge test results, etc. The index range is also from 0 to is shown in formula (10). When the result value is larger, the
10, the smaller the index, the better condition it indicates. HI2 is condition is worse, adopt the ascending function, otherwise adopt
then formulated with weighted index for all selected parameters. the descending function.
0≤x<a
⎧
10
π
⎪
3.3.1. Dissolved gas index ⎪
⎨ a+b
IEC standards have defined the acceptable values and typical H = 5 − 5 sin( (x − )) a≤x≤b (10)
b−a 2
concentration values of dissolved gas in oil (IEC, 2015). According
⎪
⎪
b<x
⎩
to the recommended values, the upper limit and lower limit of 0
each gas can be determined, as shown in Table 3. Weight for each The oil quality index is calculated as formula (11), the calcu-
gas is assigned according to its importance. lation process is similar with dissolved gas index.
The grades value of each gas can then be calculated by the as- ∑4
cending function often used to describe the relationship between i=1 Si × W i
OQF = ∑4 (11)
value and state as shown in Fig. 3. Wi
i=1
9041
H. Guo and L. Guo Energy Reports 8 (2022) 9038–9045

Table 4
Oil quality test values thresholds and weights.
Gas Grading thresholds Weight (Wi )
Lower limit Upper limit
Breakdown voltage, kV (2.5 mm gap) 40 60 3
Acid value, mg KON/g 0.01 0.5 1
Water content (Karl fisher), mg/L 10 30 3
Dielectric loss, % 0.2 4 4

Table 6
Test item weight coefficient table.
Serial number Pilot projects Weight coefficient k
1 Dissolved gas index HIF1 10
2 Oil quality index HIF2 8
3 Furfural index HIF3 8
4 Dielectric loss index HIF4 5
5 Absorption ratio index HIF5 5
6 DC resistance index HIF6 5
7 Partial discharge index HIF7 10

3.3.8. The formation of health index

The purpose of the health index is different from that of the
Fig. 4. Descending function. routine test. The purpose of the test is to find defects, while
the purpose of the health index is to describe the transformer
Table 5 condition. It should be noted that actual test items carried out
Furfural status table. can be different according to the specific conditions and test
Condition level Furfural content (mg/L) Furfural index availabilities on site. Test items can be added or reduced accord-
A 0∼0.1 0 ing to the actual situation, which does not hinder the condition
B 0.1∼0.5 2 assessment of the transformer. However, the more test items, the
C 0.5∼1 4
more accurate the assessment of the transformer condition will
D 1 ∼5 6
E >5 8
be. Therefore, more test items are preferred.
Since the importance of different test items is different, weight
coefficient is assigned for each test item, as shown in Table 6.
The test health index HI2 can be calculated as formula (12).
Similarly, the oil quality index ranges from 0 to 10. ∑7
i=1 ki HIFi
HI2 = ∑7 (12)
3.3.3. Furfural index ki
i=1
Furfural is the aging product of transformer solid insulation,
which is an important parameter to characterize the aging condi- In the calculation of HI2 , the test items are not limited to the 7
tion of the transformer. The condition levels are A∼E correspond- listed in this paper. These 7 test items are the most accessible
ing to different levels of furfural content, and their representative test results on site. If there are other test items, they can also
index values are 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8, respectively (DL/T, 2005). That is, be included, the value of i can be adjusted according to the
the furfural index can be determined according to the condition actual situation. The more test items used, the more accurate the
level (see Table 5). assessment results will be, and as many test results as possible
should be included in the assessment. Regardless of the test
3.3.4. Dielectric loss index items, the result reflects the health index value obtained from the
Dielectric loss is a very important parameter to characterize test, and its range is within 0∼10.
the condition of a transformer. The ascending function in formula DGA, oil quality, and other test data mostly reflect the insu-
(7) can also be used to express its test index, where a = 0.5% and lation condition of the transformer, that is to say, HI2 mainly
b = 2% (GB, 2016). reflects the deterioration of insulating strength of the transformer
in service.
3.3.5. Absorption ratio index
The absorption ratio is between 1.0 and 1.5 under normal 3.4. Final determination of health index
conditions (GB, 2016). Therefore, the descending function can be
used, where a = 1.0 and b = 1.5. HI is calculated based on the theoretical heath index HI1 and
test health index HI2 as formula (13).
3.3.6. DC resistance index HI = A × HI1 + B × HI2 (13)
The difference between the winding resistance of each phase
in a power transformer should not be greater than 2% of the The coefficients A and B represent the weight of the theoretical
average value of the three phases (GB, 2016). Therefore, the DC health index and the test health index. A is 0.4 and B is 0.6.
resistance can use the ascending function, where a = 1% and b = The specific value of A and B are determined according to the
2%. comment of expert in transformer industry.
In the long-term operation of the transformer, on the one
3.3.7. Partial discharge index hand, the mechanical strength of the solid insulating material will
The partial discharge should not be greater than 50 pC. If it decrease due to the thermal aging, and on the other hand, the
is greater than 250 pC, further testing is required (IEC, 2018). insulating strength will decrease due to oil pollution and other
Therefore, the ascending function can be used, where a = 50, b reasons. The HI calculation method proposed in this paper fully
= 250. considers these two factors to assess the transformer condition.
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H. Guo and L. Guo Energy Reports 8 (2022) 9038–9045

Table 7
Basic data of 330 kV transformer.
Type Put into operation time (year) Rated voltage (kV) Rated current (A) Load rate (%) Pollution level
OSFPS-150000/330 1985 330 ± 2 × 2.5%/121/11 263/716/2100 65% Medium

Table 8 Table 9
Test data. HI value and condition of sample transformers.
Test items Test time (year) Voltage ratio, kV 330 330 330 330
2014 2016 2017 2018 Load rate (%) 40 40 65 70
DC resistance (%) 0.91 0.97 0.87 0.92 Pollution level Light Light Medium Heavy
Absorption ratio 1.39 1.35 1.32 1.32 Age(year) 1 10 17 28
Dielectric loss (%) 0.292 0.352 0.450 0.423 DC resistance (%) 0.62 0.69 0.87 0.82
Absorption ratio 1.14 1.26 1.46 1.69
Dissolved gas (mg/L) Dielectric loss (%) 0.182 0.275 0.425 0.462
H2 21.9 23.8 25.2 32.2 Dissolved gas (mg/L)
CH4 5.8 9.3 5.6 26.6
C2 H 6 3.4 2.5 1.1 11.1 H2 15 17 40 130
C2 H 4 40 33.6 24.9 44.7 CH4 2.7 5.6 136 90
C2 H 2 1 1.5 1.8 4.5 C2 H 6 0 1 30 72
CO 627.8 426.4 628.4 676.8 C2 H 4 0.5 0.8 89 210
CO2 6995.5 6151.6 7647.2 8353.5 C2 H 2 0 0 1.5 2.3
CO 321 683 749 820
Oil quality CO2 739 697 9354 8595
Breakdown voltage, kV (2.5 mm gap) 59.9 59.7 57.6 42.3 Oil quality
Water content, mg/L 7.9 7.5 8.1 14.9
Dielectric loss, % 0.73 0.95 0.82 1.32 Breakdown voltage, kV 59 62 51 48
Acid value, mg KON/g 0.032 0.042 0.035 0.48 Water content, mg/L 14.1 15 14.9 18.3
Dielectric loss, % 0.118 0.315 0.46 0.42
Acid value, mg KON/g 0.02 0.016 0.18 0.6
Results
HI 0.95 1.34 3.2 6.3
Condition Good Good Medium Bad

HI1 mainly reflects the ability of anti-short circuit of trans-

Fig. 5. Heath index value.
4. Case study
4.1. Transformer with different operation time
A 330 kV transformer was selected as a case study. Its basic
data is shown in Table 7.
The test date at different operating time is shown in Table 8.
The heath index (HI, HI1 , HI2 ) of this transformer is illustrated
in Fig. 5.
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that when the operating time reaches
33 years (in 2018), its HI has increased rapidly compared with
the previous year: from 4.5 to 7. HI1 mainly reflects the thermal
aging process, and mainly considers the operation time, load
and operating environment of the individual differences of the
transformer. It is not comprehensive as a basis for reflecting the
condition of the transformer alone. HI2 is the assessment of the
transformer condition from the perspective of multiple tests. It
can be seen from Fig. 5 that even if the transformer has been
running for over 30 years, HI2 based on test results is still good,
but the thermal aging of the transformer has reached a relatively
high level, indicated by HI1 .
9043
former due to thermal aging. HI2 reflects the insulating strength
of the transformer based on test data. A transformer near the
end of life may have high HI1 but low HI2 , which shows that
the transformer insulating performance is good, but the ability
of anti-short circuit is poor. On the contrary, if a transformer
has high HI2 but low HI1 , it means that although the ability of
anti-short circuit is still good, the insulating performance is poor.
For transformer condition assessment, both mechanical strength
and insulating strength should be considered. It is necessary to
combine the HI1 and HI2 to assess the transformer condition.
Based on the HI results, this transformer has been out of
operation in 2019, and the DP value was 206, which verifies the
effectiveness of the method proposed in this paper.
4.2. Sample transformers
The operation history, test data, and calculated HI of some
sample transformers are shown in Table 9.
There are many input parameters that can be used for calcu-
lation of HI, some of which are easy to obtain and some of which
are difficult to obtain. For HI1 , the parameters are easy to obtain.
For HI2 , dissolved gas analysis (DGA) is normally considered as an
important parameter for HI2 calculation. It can reflect the defects
in transformer such as arcing, partial discharge and overheating.
The second important parameter in the calculation of HI2 is oil
quality test that provides the overall condition of oil and it is
sensitive for characterization of oil aging. HI results in Table 9
mainly adopt DGA and oil quality results. Partial discharge is also
very important to characterize the condition of the transformer,
but it can be difficult to obtain the partial discharge in pC on site.
When partial discharge online monitoring is possible, it can be
considered as well.
In addition, the DP value of insulating paper directly charac-
terizes transformer’s mechanical strength. This parameter is very
H. Guo and L. Guo
Fig. 6. Surveyed transformer running time and health index chart.
important for characterizing the condition of the transformer,
but the DP value needs to be measured by taking paper samples
from the inside of the transformer, which cannot be done for the
transformer in operation. Therefore, DP value is not included in
the HI calculation, but is instead indirectly characterized by the
thermal aging process of HI1 .
5. On-site data analysis
Investigation and statistics of 55 transformers on site rated
at 330 kV with different operating time were carried out. 186
sets of test data at different operating time were obtained, and
the transformer health index at different operating time was
calculated, as shown in Fig. 6.
It can be seen from Fig. 6 that as the operating time increases,
the HI of the transformer shows an upward trend. However, due
to the difference in load, environment and test items, even with
the same operating time, the individual health index of the trans-
former is not necessarily the same. The HI calculation procedure
proposed in this paper offers a more realistic assessment results
by considering the operation history and test data that provides
a more reasonable basis for the maintenance strategies.
6. Conclusions
The goal of condition assessment is to assess the overall con-
dition of transformers in operation to provide for guidance over
repair or maintenance strategy to achieve sustainable operation.
Accurate condition assessment is the foundation for condition
maintenance of transformers.
The theoretical health index used in the proposed method
mainly reflects the deterioration of mechanical strength of the
transformer during long-term operation due to thermal aging
of insulating paper. It alone is not comprehensive enough to
reflect the actual condition of the transformer. The test health
index provides insight of the actual operating conditions of the
transformer through various test data. A transformer with a long
operating time but mild operation condition will cause a high
HI1 score but low HI2 score, which then cause a medium overall
HI score indicating that the transformer can still be in relatively
good condition despite the long operating time. This could help
eliminate unnecessary overhauls and extend the service life of the
transformer.
In summary, the proposed method in this paper provides
a more realistic and comprehensive assessment of the trans-
former condition by considering both theoretical aging process
and actual operation. This method was applied to 55 power trans-
formers at 330 kV to obtain the health index value and provided
9044
Energy Reports 8 (2022) 9038–9045
valuable guidance information for the withdrawn of transform-
ers. The research results of this paper provide a practical and
comprehensive HI calculation method for transformer condition
assessment.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Hong Guo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Modeling, Soft-
ware, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. Lei Guo: DataCu-
ration, Investigation.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
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