Tap changing position

we are frequently changing tap position of Unit station transformer due to voltage problem. what are the impacts on transformer life and is there any solution to minimize this? 10 days ago

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sinnaduraiUnfollow Follow sinnadurai sinnadurai sripadmanaban Is it auo or manual/. 10 days ago Unlike Like

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AnkushUnfollow Follow Ankush Ankush Saxena Auto sir 10 days ago Unlike Like

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sinnaduraiUnfollow Follow sinnadurai sinnadurai sripadmanaban Read the manual for oil testing frequency & tap inspection frequency 9 days ago Unlike Like

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CharlesUnfollow Follow Charles Charles Cunha If the transformer has a load tap changer (low side), then are you changing the high side no load tap to try and keep the low side voltage where you need it? I am not clear about the question. Load tap changers (LTC) for substations that feed cities (we are talking now about big transformers with load tap changers) will often change taps due to the varying loads. A good rule of thumb is that they should not tap more than 250 times per week. That will get you around 500,000 operations in about 40 years, which is the life span (the operations) of a typical LTC (the LTC contacts will likely be changed during this period). You may need to adjust the bandwidth and or the timer to keep the operations down to a reasonable level. If that does not work then the LTC controller may need to be replaced. 9 days ago Unlike Like

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AnkushUnfollow Follow Ankush Ankush Saxena sir it is station transformer of 25MVA .So number of operation you told is too huge i.e:250 times per week. Because of frequent tap changing the oil in OLTC became very degrade. 9 days ago Unlike Like

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Tony CutnerUnfollow Follow Tony Cutner Tony Cutner BSc CEng MIET Your original question is about transformer life expectancy, and tap changing will have little shortening effect of the life expectancy. It was after all designed with it that in mind in the factory. Your question has now drifted onto oil degradation, that should not be related to tap changing, so why do you think so ? Your oil is being contaminated, moisture usually, or getting too hot. Anyway you can trace the cause- oil analysis should give you a clue. 8 days ago Unlike Like

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CharlesUnfollow Follow Charles Charles Cunha Since it appears that you are talking about OLTC, then 250 taps per week is the maximum level that is reasonable in my opinion for a transformer serving varying loads, such as a city. I worked for electric utilities in the US for 23 years and looked at load tap changing counts every week for over 450 MW of transformers (15 MVA to 46 MVA all serving city loads). This count is the top end we would allow. The average count was in the 125-150 range per week (summer loads, with wide varying loads each day, winter loads caused less tapping per week). Oil does not degrade rapidly in the OLTC (that is operating properly) even with a maximum of 250 counts per week, but we would take oil samples every year of the OLTC and the transformer to keep tabs on their overall health. If the oil in the OLTC does degrade rapidly, then their is a good chance that the alignment of the taps is improper and arcing may be occurring during the tap changing. Tony is correct, OLTC has little or no effect on the life of the transformer. Also, there are two separate oil compartments, one for the OLTC and one for the transformer. 8 days ago Unlike Like

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alexUnfollow Follow alex alex calter Whats the make of OLTC and AVR Relay.... 8 days ago Unlike Like

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PradeepUnfollow Follow Pradeep Pradeep Modi I understand your view point however utilities in Mumbai , Delhi are changing it approx. 10 to 30 times in a day and there is no problem observes. If you decide less number of operation then you also need to think the influence on the loads which are connected on the secondary side of transformer. If you need more info about special control scheme then you could inform me and I will organise it for you. It is also possible to use your capacitor bank effectively. 8 days ago Unlike Like

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sinnaduraiUnfollow Follow sinnadurai sinnadurai sripadmanaban Is there an operations counter to record the number of times it has operated?. 8 days ago Unlike Like

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Ir. Faridul FarhanUnfollow Follow Ir. Faridul Farhan

Ir. Faridul Farhan Abd Wahab OLTC (On Load Tap Changer) should be inside its own dedicated partition which is inside its own oil. It is design to have frequent tap changing activities. The effect is: you need to change the oil more frequent if you have a frequent tap changing activity. Eventhough you manual syas -for instance: change OLTC oil every 2 years. But because you have a frequent tap changing activity, it could probably be shorten to 1 and 1/2 years, or 1 year etc. Therefore, do not believe your manual 100%. Rather, perform Predictive Maintenance on the OLTC instead of just Preventive Maintenance. Wallahu a'lam 6 days ago Unlike Like

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CharlesUnfollow Follow Charles Charles Cunha Having more tap changing per week is not bad, but it wears out the tap changer faster and does require more maintenance. We set our bandwidth at 1.5 volts, 0.75 up and 0.75 down, with a minimum timer of 30 seconds (voltage has to be out of bandwidth for more than 30 seconds for tap changer to move). Voltage for the OLTC controller is based on a 120V base. This normally worked well for our city loads, but perhaps your loads vary even more. I have used a bandwidth of 2 volts maximum with good success to keep the OLTC from tapping more than I liked (250 taps per week, and naturally if your loads swing more than what we had then your taps per week are going to be higher). The 250 count per week maximum is just a goal we set to try and maximize the life of our tap changers and minimize our maintenance. Looking at your timer and bandwidth may help reduce the taps per week. When the tap count per week jumps up suddenly you can suspect the controller might be bad. One more thing, I never use the X setting, just the R. I would draw the voltage "curve" versus the current and figure out my maximum voltage based on the maximum current. This worked well for me for my 23 years of utility work (again, these are city loads, base power factor during the summer was 85%). The power factor would be higher in the winter and lower in the summer (summer at 85% and winter was over 95% because in the winter we had no air conditioning loads). That is why I did not use the X setting (one setting year round). 6 days ago Unlike Like

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Juan RamonUnfollow Follow Juan Ramon Juan Ramon Guijarro Castro the only solution to minimize the tap changing is increase the bandwidth of the voltage controller anf fix a minimum timer between the changes. If the loads doesnt vary so fast you can set the bandwidth at 1.3%, althougt you can increase the bandwidth until 2,5% (depends the type of load and the limits of the Regulation). If the tap changer has its own oil the costs of the maintenance is low, your problem will be change the oil with the transformer out of service. 5 days ago Unlike Like

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Ir. Faridul FarhanUnfollow Follow Ir. Faridul Farhan Ir. Faridul Farhan Abd Wahab Lets look at the basics here: When tap changers, arc will appear. This is normal as if inside Circuit Breakers. They were meant to perform this arching operation. It is due to this arching activity the oil inside the OLTC compartment gets ware out. Now, for these arching type equipments, what do we need to do? 1) Change the OLTC oil during outage 2) Bring out and service the tap changer during outage. It's a matter of WHEN shall we perform such maintenance. Therefore, to answer the WHEN question, need to look at how frequent we change tap. 5 days ago Unlike Like

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MeynardoUnfollow Follow Meynardo Meynardo Custodio Your question still lacks many important information needed to answer your questions. Although you said it is changing taps frequently you did not state how the onload tap changer (OLTC) is moving. Is it raising the voltage output or is it lowering the voltage output of your 25 MVA transformer. Let us know up to how many steps it raises or lower. There are usually 16 steps "raise" and 16 steps "lower" on the OLTC. How do you observe the maximum "raise" it indicated daily, and how do you observe the "maximum" lower it indicated daily? Are you reading/ logging the indicator position daily and resetting the indicator daily? Are you reading / or are you logging the voltage input to your transformer. Are you keeping the historical profile of your voltage input and load current? These are all vital information that will be needed in order to have a good analysis and solution to your voltage fluctuation problem. is there a heavy cyclic load connected to your transformer? Does your Utility company's power supply to your substation transformer reliably stable? On the your question about the effect on the degradation of the transformer life, I do not see any serious impact on the transformer life. Your main concern will be on the life of your automatic tap changer contacts which will be eroded due to frequent changing of the contact positions. There will also be some carbonization on the insulating oil in your tap changer compartment that you may need earlier maintenance schedule than the normal period. 4 days ago Unlike Like

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OmerUnfollow Follow Omer

Omer A.Osman Although there are some contraditions in your query, Mr. Ankus , that you mentioned it is an Auto Tap Changer (On Load by default) and on the other hand you said you are frequently changing the position of the tap changer, I fully concur with Mr.sinnadurai comment. Accordingly I confirm that no problem and your fear already has been considered by the Designer / manufacturer. You are only required to adhere to the Manufacturer recommended Preventive Maintenace & Maintenance schedule . If the Transformer has not provided by a Bouchloz relay, frequent oil testing may be required for BD volltage and Tap moving contacts. 4 days ago Unlike Like

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DavidUnfollow Follow David David Peck What is the make and model of tapchanger? I ask this because some designs can cope with high numbers of operation better than others. Also the range over which the operations are taking place is significant for contact life. Hunting up and down between just two taps can be very bad for some designs. 4 days ago Unlike Like

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Ajai KumarUnfollow Follow Ajai Kumar Ajai Kumar Pathak There will not any effect on main transformer,ON LOAD TAP CHANGER(OLTC) contact and its oil will be effected.More no. of operation life of fixed and moving contact will be less. No. of operation depend on variation of load and stability of power system that is not in your

hand. Better to talk OLTC manufacturer about no. of operation permissible and Break down voltage of oil and its frequency.If transformer is having seperate tank for OLTC i.e. one way transformer. There shall not be any sparking inside of OLTC as while rotation before leaving one moving contact other contact shall be make,sparking may be due to not proper contacts .All these comments are for outside tank OLTC 3 days ago Unlike Like

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HenrisonUnfollow Follow Henrison Henrison Lumbanraja According to my experiencies in operation and maintenance of tranformers there is no problem even OLTC is set to Auto or manual, or how many times it operated, the most important is how do you maintain the transformer due to the manual from manufacturer. 3 days ago Unlike Like

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oluochUnfollow Follow oluoch oluoch akello I have worked in a power station's local control and I could kept increasing or decreasing the sending voltage. I think there is really no problem with this because of the V-I relationships. Even from the power production, voltages and currents keep changing. The main thing here is continuous maintenance.

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Chandra SekharUnfollow Follow Chandra Sekhar Chandra Sekhar Nuli Mr. Ankush, Better you contact to your connected substation and inquire that, why frequent voltage fluctuations are happening. Know the reason from them and find a solution. More tap changes will cause life redundancy of tap changer contacts, transformer oil and transition resistances. Better you go with manufacturer recommendations for tap changer inspection and oil changer. 3 days ago Unlike Like

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SEKHARUnfollow Follow SEKHAR SEKHAR BHATTACHARYA If this is an OLTC unit,then follow OEMs recommendation for maintenance ,or in general you have to maintain(every 50,000 operations or one year whichever is earlier) ie remove the diverter switch clean inside oil replacement and clean the Conservator tank related to the OLTC ,check the healthiness of the pad contacts,transition resistors and finally box it up and continue filtration with vacuum-760mmof Hg and oil temperature at the machine at 70Deg C. After 3/4hous of filtration check the oil BDV and then check the Transformer IR value and PI(R10/R1) if these are OK then stop filtration after 2hrs release air from OSR surge relay and

finally conduct a ratio /magnetic balance test. Repeat this ofter every 50000 OLTC operations or everyyear whichever is earlier. There is not supposed to be any other problem with continuous use of OLTC unit. 2 hours ago Unlike