IEEE EUROCON 2017, 68 JULY 2017, OHRID, R.

MACEDONIA

Testing the Electrical Insulation System of Power

Transformer Based on Mesuring Factor of Dielectric
Losses

Vladimir Valenti#1, Sanja Grini#2, Dean Dobrec#3

Croatian Transmission System Operator Ltd.
Transmission Area Rijeka
Croatia
1
vladimir.valentic@hops.hr
2
sanja.grzinic@hops.hr
3
dean.dobrec@hops.hr

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to describe diagnostic tests
which measure capacitance and factor of dielectric losses of
transformers' insulation system. Transformers insulation system
consists of paper insulation and insulating oil. The factor of
dielectric losses is the ratio of active and reactive components of
current and as such reflects changes of both currents. It is less
dependent on dimensions of the insulation, and more dependent
on the structure of isolation. State assessment results in certain
prevention activities or directs maintainers to devote greater
attention to critical positions, i.e. to the measured critical
parameters of the unit. This is how we avoid the danger of power
transformers failure which may cause major direct damage to
the observed element or indirect damage as a result of a sudden
unwanted disturbances in the power system. This measurement
significantly improves the safety not only of the power
transformers but also improves the safety and reliability of the
electrical power system.
Keywords: Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, Power
transformers, Diagnostics
temperature is displayed in the VI section. Measured values of
capacitance and factor of dielectric losses of the related power
transformer (110/35/10 kV, of nominal power 40 MVA, in
operation throughout the year with the load of more than 60%
of nominal power) are displayed in section VII. And finally,
the conclusions are presented in section VIII.
II. SERIAL AND PARALLEL REPLACEMENT SCHEME OF
DIELECTRIC
A. Serial substitution scheme of the dielectric
In serial connection, current passes through the capacitor
and resistance is equal. The voltage and current through the
resistor are in phase, while the voltage on the capacitance lags
behind the current for 90, Fig. 1.
I
I C R

I. INTRODUCTION
U
When testing the insulation system of transformer with Uc UR
alternating voltage we measure the capacitance and factor of UR
U
dielectric losses tan of the insulation. The results of these UC U
measurements are yet another indicator of the state of isolation
with regard to humidity, dirt and the internal structure of the
isolation system. From the first day of use, the equipment has Fig. 1. Serial substitution scheme of the dielectric
been exposed to thermal and mechanical stress, and to the
influence of heat and humidity which increase the operating Dielectric loss factor serial replacement scheme is:
temperature. Increase of the operating temperature accelerates
chemical reactions in electrical insulation, resulting in UR IR (1)
tan = = = CR
deterioration of dielectric characteristics [1]. This process has UC I
the avalanche effect, therefore changes of isolation C
characteristics increase the loss factor and cause heating, which
leads to a further increase of dielectric losses. If the factor of Where:
dielectric losses is regularly checked and compared, one can tan .is factor of dielectric losses,
predict and avoid the failure of the transformer [2][3]. C.is ideal capacitance,
This paper consists of the following sections: section II R.is ideal resistor,
describes serial and parallel replacement scheme of dielectric, UC.is reactive component of voltage,
in section III we described measuring of capacitance and factor UR.is active component of voltage,
of dielectric losses using Schering's bridge, while in section IV U.is voltage applied to dielectric and
we displayed corresponding compound measures. Limit values .is angular frequency; =2f
of the factor of transformers dielectric losses of are displayed
in section V. Dependency of the factor of dielectric losses on

978-1-5090-3843-5/17/$31.00 2017 IEEE

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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 68 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

The scheme with parallel resistance suits better during
testing of small conductivity dielectric, and in case of a
dielectric with large losses the serial scheme is more suitable.
B. Dielectric parallel replacement scheme
In parallel replacement scheme the current fronts voltage by
an angle smaller than 90 and that angle gets smaller as the
losses of active power get bigger, as shown in Fig. 2.
Ic C
Ic I
III. MEASURING OF CAPACITANCE AND FACTOR OF
DIELECTRIC LOSSES USING SCHERINGS BRIDGE
The standard etalon capacitor C2 of negligible small angle
loss is located in the second branch of the bridge. Effective
resistance R3 is in the third branch, and parallel combination
resistance R4 and the capacitance C4 in the fourth, as shown in
Fig. 3 [4].
Rx
Cx C2

~ N
I R4

IR R R3
C4

U
IR U

Fig. 2. Dielectric parallel replacement scheme Fig. 3. Scherings brigde

From the phasor diagram in Fig. 2. arises the (2):

When measuring with high voltage, one end is attached to
U 1 the voltage source on the junction of the first and second
IR P R X C C 1 (2) branch, and the other end on the junction of the third and
tan = = = = = =
IC Q U R R CR fourth branch.
XC Impedances of individual branches of the bridge amount to:
Where: 1
IC.is reactive component of current, Z1 = R x + (5)
jC x
IR.is active component of current,
P.is reactive power,
Q.is active power and 1
XC.is reactance. Z2 = (6)
jC2

Since the measurement object can be displayed by serial Z 3 = R3 (7)

and parallel replacement scheme, wherein values of the
measured capacitances are different, the equation for
R4
interconversion are shown below. Z4 = (8)
1 + jC4 R4

CS = CP (1 + tan 2 ) (3) Equilibrium conditions are achieved if:

Z1 Z 4 = Z 2 Z 3 (9)
tan 2
RS = RP (4)
1 + tan 2 1 R4 R3
RX + = (10)
jC X 1 + jC4 R4 jC2
Where:
CS .is capacitance of serial replacement scheme,
CP.is capacitance of parallel replacement scheme, Upon separation of real components from imaginary ones we
RS .is resistance of serial replacement scheme and obtain:
RP .is resistance of parallel replacement scheme.
R
C x = C2 4 (11)
R3
Factor of dielectric losses of windings tan depends on
capacitance, resistance and frequency. Measured values do not C
indicate local weak spots but provide an image about general Rx = 4 R3 (12)
state of the tested transformer. C2

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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 68 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA
Tangent of loss angle is:
R C
tan = Cx Rx = C2 4 4 R3 (13)
R3C2
tan = C4 R4 (14)
When measuring power transformers there is a case when
neither end of the voltage sources should be grounded, and the
bridge should be connected according to Fig.4.
Cx C2
Cp
~ N
R4
R3
C4
Fig. 4. Measuring of the capacitors capacitance using Scherings
bridge which has one grounded clip
Then on the simultaneously tested capacitor there is a
parallel capacitance Cp which represents the capacitance
towards the ground of the high-voltage supply bridge and the
capacitance towards the ground of one part of the high-voltage
winding of the transformer. This capacitance is regularly
significant and has an angle of losses that can not be
disregarded. Therefore, the bridge initially measures only the
parasitic capacitance Cp, excluding the capacitance of tested
power transformer, and then the measuring is repeated with
connected tested power transformer. Capacitance Cx is
determined by these two measurements
C x = Cu C p (15)
Where:
Cu .is total capacitance, i.e. the sum of the measured and
parasitic capacitance obtained by second measuring and
Cp.is parasitic capacitance obtained by first measuring.
Tangent of loss angle of the measuring capacitor is
determined from tanp obtained by first measuring and tanu
obtained by second measuring:
Cu tan u C p tan p
tan =
Cu C p
IV. COMPOUND MEASURES
Common compound measures are shown in Table I. It is
desirable always to use the same compound measures due to
comparison with the results of previous measurements [5].
TABLE I. COMPOUND MEASURES USED DURING MEASURING
TRANSFORMERS FACTOR OF DIELECTRIC LOSSES
Two-winding
Three-
Autotransformer
winding
transformer with tertiary
transformer
VN:NN VN:(SN+NN) (VN+SN):NN
VN:M VN:M (VN+SN):M
NN:M NN:(VN+SN) NN:M
NN:M
SN:M
These markings have the following meanings:
VN.winding of the higher voltage
SN.winding of the medium voltage (in the case of three-
winding transformers and autotransformers)
NN.winding of the lower voltage
M.grounded metal part of transformer.
Marking of measuring combinations in Table I. have the
following meanings:
y VN:M (SN+NN) Measuring the insulation resistance
between the high-voltage windings and mass while the
MV and LV windings are disconnected from the mass and
mutually short-circuited,
y VN:SN (NN+M) Measuring the insulation resistance
between HV and MV windings, during which the LV
winding is grounded,
y NN:M (VN+SN) Measuring the insulation resistance
between the LV windings and mass while HV and MV
windings are disconnected from the mass and mutually
short-circuited.
Principal scheme of the merge is given in Fig. 5. It is
important to note that there are two modes of measurement of
the factor of dielectric losses and these are UST (Eng.
Ungrounded Specimen Test) and GST (Eng. Grounded
Specimen Test) mode. Therefore, in case of measuring the
compound measures (HV: M), wherein M is a grounded metal
part of the transformer, GST mode must be used and UST
mode is used in case where none of the clips of the equivalent
transformer condenser is not grounded, for example in case of
measuring the compound measures VN: (MV and LV).
(16)
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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 68 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

Correction factor read from the diagram in Fig. 6. is

multiplied by the measured value of factor of dielectric losses
in order to obtain the value of factor of dielectric losses at the
reference temperature (18).

tan 20 = tan T k (18)

Where k is correction factor of dielectric losses.

VI. LIMIT VALUES

Fig. 5. Scheme representing the connection of device for measuring
the tree-winding transformers dielectric loss factor
V. DEPENDENCY OF THE FACTOR OF DIELECTRIC LOSSES
ON TEMPERATURE
Tangent of dielectric loss angle is temperature dependent
variable. Measured results are converted to a reference
temperature of 20 C using the (17), [6].
Assessment of insulation state by means of limit values is
good for the assessment of overall condition of the insulation,
but is not sufficiently sensitive to changes in a small section of
insulation due to partial discharge, smaller local overheating
and humidity or damages of the insulation.
Fig. 7. shows limit values of factor of dielectric losses of
power transformers depending on the temperature, voltage
level and power of the power transformer [3].

tan 20 = tan T e-0,0202(T + 20) (17)

Where:
tan20 ..is factor of dielectric loss of insulation converted
to the same value it would have at a temperature of 20C,
tanT ..is measured factor of dielectric losses at a
temperature T and
Tis the temperature of transformer winding during the
measurement.
It is possible to convert the temperature using the diagram
shown in Fig. 6. The figure shows the conversion factor of
dielectric losses of windings of different temperature to the
value of the factor of dielectric losses which would the
observed dielectric have at a temperature of 20 C [6].

Fig. 7. Limit values of factor of dielectric losses of power

transformers

VII. MEASURED VALUES OF CAPACITANCE AND FACTOR OF

DIELECTRIC LOSSES OF THE RELATED POWER TRANSFORMER
The measurement results are given in Table II. Windings
temperature was 40C, and relative humidity 78%.

Fig. 6. Values of the correction factor at different temperature

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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 68 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

TABLE II. RESULTS OF MEASUREMENTS OF FACTOR OF DIELECTRIC

LOSSES TAN AND CAPACITANCE OF RELATED POWER TRANSFORMER

Compound LV:M HV:M

HV:MV+LV LV:HV+MV
measures (HV+MV) (MV+LV)

C [nF] 8,71 10,76 4,2 9,59

tan
6,1 6,35 7,9 8,75
[x10-3]

Fig. 9. Graphic display of measured and limit values of factor of

From the data in the table we obtained the diagram shown
in Fig. 8 [5].
Fig. 8. Graphic display of measured and limit values of factor of
dielectric losses of transformer
From the diagram in Fig. 8 it is evident that the factor of
dielectric losses is high, and is approaching the maximum
admissible limit, which indicates the increased humidity of
insulation. The maximum admissible limit of dielectric losses
is derived from Figure 7. This figure shows limit values of
factor of dielectric losses for different type of power
transformers on different measurement temperature (i.e. from
10 C to 70 C). The object of this article is power transformer
with voltage levels 110/35/10 kV, of nominal power 40 MVA.
So, because the transformer temperature during the
measurement was 40 C, from Figure 7 (from green line) it can
be defined that the maximum admissible limit of dielectric
losses is 1110-3.
For evaluation of the state of insulation system based on
measurements the competent is the trend of change of factor of
dielectric losses during operation of transformer. The value
measured at the factory prior to delivery of transformer is taken
as the initial state [5].
dielectric losses of transformer, compound HV:(MV+LV), from
1994 until 2005.
VIII. CONCLUSION
A complete assessment of the state of power transformer's
insulation system obtained on the basis of diagnostic
measurements which include testing using DC voltage (during
which the following factors are determined: insulation
resistance, polarization index and the time constant of the
insulation system tamping) and the method of recovery voltage.
The degradation of transformer's insulation system results
with an increase of the factor of dielectric losses. Based on
described compound measures, temperature correction factors
and limit values we can conclude that the value of factor of
dielectric losses of the tested power transformer in all
compound measures are better than the admissible criteria for
safe operation.
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