In partnership with a leading local IT company, ACTOM Power Transformers has developed an online condition monitoring system for its transformers in the field.
Introduced to the market last year, the system monitors faults or irregularities in operating transformers on a real-time basis, enabling customers to take remedial action in good time to prevent or minimise damage.
At the demo stand, Power Transformers’ Boldwin Hlongwani explains how the condition monitoring system works.
Wilma Muller, Sales Manager at ACTOM Power Transformers says, “The system ensures that customers are kept constantly informed in real time about all key aspects of the condition of their transformers, including all the power-related factors such as voltage, current, load, power factor, harmonics and operating anomalies, as well as the temperatures of the winding and the oil, plus the ambient and hotspot temperatures.
“Our offer of condition monitoring equipment is combined with Power Transformers’ monitoring service, monitoring the transformers on behalf of the customer, and included in the service level agreement is an annual visit to the customer’s site. On alerts to possible problems, we consult with the customer on a way forward to address the problem. The most important aspect about monitoring the transformers is to detect and address a problem as soon as possible.”
The service level agreement covers Power Transformers’ provision of a yearly standard maintenance service for a minimum period of three years. “During this period, we monitor the unit(s) and report on any operational anomalies, alarms and trips. As part of the service level agreement, we make annual visits to the customer’s site to perform basic maintenance, including sampling and testing of oil. A report is submitted to the customer annually on the loading and operation of the transformer in that year,” Muller adds.
The division also undertakes the retrofitting of the condition monitoring system to ACTOM power transformers previously acquired, where the owners and operators want to benefit from the advantages that the monitoring system and service level agreement package offers. “At a later stage we will look at making the system available for use on non-ACTOM branded power transformers as well,” Muller says.
To enable real-time condition monitoring, the system incorporates three key IT technologies:
- Internet of Things (IoT), which gives the transformers a ‘voice’, enabling them to communicate their health and status
- Cloud computing, which involves putting the information collected into a convenient place to make it available to other systems
- BI stack, comprising graphic tools, reporting tools and alerting tools and including a data exchange mechanism.
These technologies interface with the detection equipment already installed in the transformer, comprising protection equipment, alarms and trips, and with additional equipment attached or linked to the transformer to detect and communicate other key condition factors not already catered for within the transformer. These include a power analyser, an optional dissolved gas analyser and a cooler controller.
Power Transformers’ online monitoring system, claimed to be unique in its field in terms of the scope and depth of its capabilities to detect and transmit anomalies in transformers as soon as they arise, so enabling prompt action to be taken to remedy them, was tested and proven in two pilot projects conducted by the development team at two solar PV plants in the Free State in 2021.
At the launch last year, the online monitoring system attracted a lot of interest and ACTOM Power Transformers is ready to serve the many owners and users of transformers that adopt the condition monitoring package offered.
For more information contact visit: www.actom.co.za/power-transformers/
