TRANSFORMER OIL TEMPERATURE MONITORING SYSTEM

Midion Kashiri
EDITH COWEN UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
Power transformers heat up when they are in operation and high
temperatures reduce the operating parameters of the transformer. This
project demonstrates how a computer controlled system can monitor
the temperature of a power transformer. The temperature monitoring
system consists of a sensing device, signal conditioning circuitry, data
acquisition hardware, an actuator and the software.

DESCRIPTION
The rating of a transformer is based on the temperature rise above an
assumed maximum ambient temperature. The transformer should be capable
of continuous operation at rated power without exceeding the maximum
temperature-rise limits as specified by the manufacturer or applicable
standards.
According to ABB, a renowned transformer manufacturer, the winding must
not overheat; a temperature of about 85C is considered to be the normal
maximum working value beyond which a further rise of 10C-15C, if
sustained, will halve the insulation life of the transformer. Protection against
overload is therefore based on winding temperature, which is usually
measured by a thermal image technique. The windings are immersed in oil to
cool and insulate them. Monitoring the oil temperature gives us an awareness
of any temperature changes in the windings.
At a temperature of 85C our monitoring system should give us an alarm or
turn on some cooling fans. If the temperature continues to rise above 100C
the transformer should be disconnected from the power supply. to rise, the
transformer should be disconnected by sending a tripping signal to both the
primary and the secondary side protection breakers when the temperature
reaches 100C.

Conclusion

THE SENSOR, ACTUATOR AND DATA AQUISATION

IOur sensing device is an NTC Bosch Thermistor part number 0 280 130 026
which has a measurement range of -40 to +130C.. In practice the actuator
should be very large 3 phase AC cooling fans which are difficult to demonstrate
with in the lab because of safety and the availability of the required power
supply. Therefore to simulate our project, we will use a small lab fan and if the
temperature continues to rise above 100C we should have a voltmeter reading
of +0.285v across the transformer breaker trip circuit terminals
We used DLP-IO8 Data Acquisition Module, for this project. It is designed for
measuring voltages, controlling and monitoring processes, and acquiring
temperature data. Each of the 8 available channels can be configured for any of
the digital, analog, or temperature modes via single-byte commands. It is a 5-volt
system that derives its power from the host USB port.
.

The system runs from a set of instructions in C programming language and it

functions well. We successfully tested it by monitoring the temperature of
boiling water in the lab.
The temperature sensing device could measure the temperature and a voltage
of 0.434v appeared across the fan circuit terminals. We could not run the
actual fan due to the shortage of lab fans.
When the water temperature reached 100C a voltage of 0.285v appeared
across the circuit breaker and the circuit tripped.

RESOURCES

Oil temperature monitoring system block diagram

ABB Distribution Transformer Handbook

Bosch Data sheets
www.dlp.design.com