Design, installation, and field experience with a real-time portable transformer monitoring system

Abstract

A portable transformer monitoring system has been developed and installed to monitor and store critical operating parameters of power transformers. The system's hardware, firmware, and software have been designed using an "open" architecture to provide maximum flexibility for parameter measurement and data presentation. A two-bank system can be placed in service in under three hours without requiring equipment outages and is readily expandable to include thermal modeling, alarm functions, pump and fan control, diagnostics and real-time ratings. The system can be interfaced to existing SCADA or EMS.