Integration of Online Transformer Condition
Monitoring into SCADA Systems
Arief Basuki
School of Electrical
Engineering and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung, Indonesia
arief.scada@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper presents a SCADA application for
continuous online condition monitoring for transformers, based
on the most used transformer monitoring parameters (hot spot
temperature, gas, moisture, etc.). It displays transformer
condition and diagnostic data online, produce alarms/notifications
as per tolerance limits stipulated by international IEC and IEEE
standards. Apart from creating warnings and alarms on the
transformer condition, standard transformer lifetime estimation
is also included in this application. The developed application has
been evaluated and verified with real field data from two different
sources: online temperature, 8 gas and moisture data from a
70 MVA indoor transformer and off-line measured gas data from
more than 100 transformers.
Keywords—Condition Monitoring, Diagnosis, Gas Analysis,
Lifetime Estimation, Trend Analysis, Transformer Health, SCADA
I. INTRODUCTION
Rapid technological developments in the field of electronics,
software and telecommunications have made a great influence
on the power network operation and maintenance: protection,
control, condition monitoring, etc. Communication protocols
like IEC 61850 and Intelligent Electronics Devices (IEDs) like
numerical protection relays are great examples of this
transformation.
Traditional time-based asset maintenance predominantly
relied on off-line test techniques has now been moving into
condition-based maintenance aided by on-line monitoring and
diagnostic techniques. Monitoring using sensors with just 4-20
mA analog outputs was so common in the past, whereas now, it
is more common that the modern sensors are equipped with
microprocessors and various communication protocols such as
IEC 61850, OPC, Modbus, etc. for transferring measured
data/signals.
There are variety of power transformers online condition
monitoring products in the market with a diverse collection of
configuration features, communication options, displays,
interpretation, etc. However irrespective of the communication
options provided with the monitoring hardware, most of them
are in operation as standalone systems that have several
disadvantages such as availability of data locally and remotely,
difficult to integrate with power system monitoring platforms
and cyber security issues if those monitoring systems are used
remotely. With the proposed approach in this paper, cyber
This work was supported by PT. PLN (Persero), Indonesian State Electricity
Company and was conducted at ABB Corporate Research Center, Sweden.
978-1-5386-2910-9/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Suwarno
School of Electrical
Engineering and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung, Indonesia
suwarno@stei.itb.ac.id
security threats become minimal because of using SCADA
communication protocol that are more secure and reliable. This
condition monitoring application can be hosted in a local
substation automation system, providing information locally or
to a remote-control center for monitoring transformer health in
a fleet level.
II. SCADA APPLICATION FOR TRANSFORMER MONITORING
Condition monitoring can be defined as a parameter
monitoring process of an equipment within a certain period to
identify changes that may compromise equipment health or keep
it out of operation. For the purpose on-line condition monitoring
of transformers, there has been many devices and sensors
introduced into the market based on different parameters such as
temperature, gas, moisture content, etc., which provide
indications of incipient faults or faults that occurred already.
Most of the transformer monitoring equipment have their own
local and remote HMI to visualize and inform the status of the
monitored parameters in different level of details. From the
transformer owner’s/operator’s points of view, this
diagnostic/monitoring information should preferably be
available at one place through one interface, and in the best case
having only one health indicator per transformer.
To fulfill the aforementioned desire, a continuous on-line
monitoring application in SCADA is proposed, which is
available locally in the substation level and from the control
center via SCADA communication protocol. Thus, all assets in
an electrical system can be remotely monitored and centralized,
as well as power system monitoring. Apart from collecting and
visualizing data and diagnostic information from transformer
monitoring systems by means of standard station
communication protocols, proposed application is also equipped
with diagnosing methods such as dissolved gas analysis
according to IEEE and IEC standards [3, 4], notification,
alarming and trend analysis.
III. TRANSFORMER DIAGNOSTIC PARAMETERS
A. DGA (Dissolved Gas Analysis)
Certain transformer fault types cause an increase in oil
temperature, also result in certain oxidation products such as
dissolved gases: hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6),
ethylene (C2H4), acetylene (C2H2), carbon monoxide (CO) and
carbon dioxide (CO2). The presence of these gases in the According to [9], there are safe limit values for the moisture
transformer oil can be considered as an indicator of a suspected in oil (mg/kg) as shows in table I.
fault in a transformer. The amount and composition of these
gases can be used to detect the type of disturbance or fault that TABLE I. RECOMMENDED ACTION LIMIT STIPULATED IN IEC
occurs. The technique for diagnosing transformer fault based on 60422-2013 [9]
these gases is called Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA). Recommended action limits
Property Category
Good Fair Poor
There are several DGA methods according to [3] and [4]: Water O, A < 15 15 to 20 > 20
TDCG, key gas, Doernenburg ratio, Roger ratio and IEC ratio, content B, D < 20 20 to 30 > 30
CO2/CO ratio and Duval triangle method. (mg/kg at C, E < 30 30 to 40 > 40
transformer F Action
operating necessity > 40
B. Temperature and transformer aging parameters G Not a routine test
temperature)
One of the important parameters that should be monitored
regularly is temperature. Transformer temperature is one of the IV. TREND ANALYSIS
critical limiting factors for their loading and can dictate their
lifetime. There are several temperature measurements that can A reliable on-line monitoring system is highly dependent on
be use in on-line monitoring: top oil, bottom oil and hotspot the quality of measurements. Sensor specifications such as
temperature [6, 7]. accuracy, precision, resolution, linearity and time response
greatly affect the measurement results. Noise and outliers caused
According to [7], there are limitations for temperature rise: by various environment and system conditions can reduce the
60° for top oil and 78° for hotspot winding. The limits refer to precision of measured parameters.
steady state conditions under continuous rated power, and 20 °C There are various trend detection techniques to identify
average yearly ambient temperature. These limits are valid for continuous changes over time amidst noise and outliers. Trend
both Kraft and upgraded paper. analysis can be useful to identify early sign of incipient fault
Due to the fact that distribution of temperatures in a conditions and hence to flag an imminent fault much in advance
transformer is not uniform and paper insulation aging rate is before the parameter value (e.g., gas and moisture in oil [1]) hits
dependent on the temperature, the prediction of the transformer the tolerance limit.
lifetime has to be done based on the winding hotspot Trending Example Raw Data
temperature. The relative ageing rate in transformer V is defined 80 Trending

according to equation (1) for non-thermally and equation (2) for 60

thermally upgraded paper [6, 8]. 40

20
)⁄
= 2( (1)
0

( ) Fig. 1. Trending example

= (2)
Averaging and low pass filtering are commonly used trend
= ≈∑ ( ) (3) analysis [1]. Moving average is an effective way of filtering
noise and outliers in the data so that the trend data is easier to be
where identified.
Vn - relative ageing rate during interval n, according to equation There are number of moving average techniques available
(1) or (2) such as simple moving average (SMA), weighted moving
- hot-spot temperature in oC average (WMA) and exponential moving average (EMA). SMA
tn - nth time interval uses the same weighting for each data while the WMA and EMA
n - number of each time interval add weight to the data.
N - total number of intervals during the period considered.
L - loss of life over a certain period EMA also known as exponential smoothing [18], which can
be expressed as:
C. Moisture in oil
= + ( − ) (4)
Besides hotspot temperature, moisture also has important
effect in deciding transformer lifetime. It accelerates
Where:
depolymerization of paper and pressboard insulation, reduces
the breakdown voltage of oil and increases the risk of bubbling − new and previous exponential smoothing values
during sudden overload or thermal stresses [2]. −
There are several moisture sources according to [2] such as: − new value
remaining moisture in insulation during manufacturing, humid − the smoothing constant, 0 ≤ ≤ 1
air from outside during transportation or/and assembling in Variance ( ) of is [26]:
substation, chemical decomposition of cellulose, etc.
 = (1 − )( + ( − ) ) (5) monitoring parameters described below. The application was
designed in such way that it can load off-line measured data,
Tracking trends in different gas parameters based on EMA logged data from IEDs or receive data on-line from IEDs.
is presented in section VII(A). 1. Main Display

V. IMPLEMENTATION ARCHITECTURE
A. Hardware Configuration
Based on substation automation communication hierarchy,
there are three configuration levels involved in implementing a
continuous online transformer condition monitoring in SCADA,
which is illustrated in in Fig. 2.
The main display shows summary of all monitored signals,
alarm result from diagnostics methods and lifetime estimation
[6, 8]. This is linked to the human machine interface in a
substation automation display where a single line diagram
usually shows status of all monitored quantities and operations
to the operator. Fig. 3 depicts part of a typical single line diagram
with an added traffic light beside the transformer symbol to
indicate transformer health status to the operator. Fig. 4 shows a
screenshot of the main display which provides a summary of
monitored signals, associated alarm status and calculated
parameters like loss of life. Each alarm indicator is linked to
another sub-display that proves more detailed view of the alarm
status, which are described in the section VII.

Fig. 2. Hardware configuration [15] Fig. 3. Example single line diagram in a SCADA display

In Fig. 2, process level consists of sensors such as gas sensor,

current sensor, air thermometer, oil temperature sensor and
cooling control, etc. In this example, all sensors on process level
are connected to bay level transformer monitoring IED (ABB
CoreTEC). This IED has the capability of processing sensor
data, interpret and communicate parameters upwards via
standard communications protocols like IEC 61850-8-1. On the
station level, SCADA (ABB MicroSCDA) receives the
diagnostics parameters form the IED via IEC61850-8-1 station
bus.
The same architecture can also be implemented with similar
IEDs, RTUs (Remote Terminal Unit) or PLC (Programmable
Logic Controller) that has analog input to read measurement
value from sensors, process data and pass the information to
station level using SCADA protocols i.e. IEC 61850, IEC
60870-5-101/104, Modbus, etc.

B. SCADA application
Proposed integrated transformer monitoring application was
built in ABB MicroSCADA, consisting of a main display and
auxiliary displays (that are linked to the main) for different Fig. 4. Main display
2. Gas Application VI. TESTING OF SCADA GAS DIAGNOSTIC MODULE
There are several diagnostic methods applied to gas The gas application module in SCADA was tested with the
parameters, which are implemented in this application such as off-line measured and analyzed gas data from 110 transformers
TDCG method, key gas method and ratio methods [3, 4]. The installed at PT. PLN (Persero), Indonesia. These gas data were
results of each interpretation method are combined using OR originally interpreted using TDCG, key gas, ratio (Roger and
logic to produce the final gas alarm. So, the gas alarm will Doernenburg), CO2/CO ratio and Duval triangle method, which
appear if at least one method detects a problem. As method, gas are compared with the results from the SCADA application.
alarm is OR gated with other alarms to the main display and be The testing results from gas diagnostic application compared
recorded in the event data base or list of SCADA. to off-line interpretation are shown in table II.
The gas diagnostic application displays on-line gas values,
diagnostics result from each method and daily rate of change for TABLE II. COMPARISON OF SCADA GAS APPLICATION AND OFF-LINE
ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION
each gas (see Fig. 6). TDCG method is also equipped trend
analysis for each gas. This opens a new display showing the DGA analysis No of Same Result as off-line Percentage
trend data of each gas and its analysis. method Data analysis (%)
Duval 110 110 100
3. Moisture Application Key gas 110 81 74
Based on Table I [9], this application module produces alarm Roger 110 94 85
Doernenburg 110 82 75
for insulation condition in three definitions, “Good”, “Fair” and
IEC 110 94 85
“Poor” according to moisture content in oil. The transformer in
CO2/CO 110 63 57
this case is category A, based on [9]. Exponential moving
average of moisture content is used to detect trends: trend up,
down or equal. Historical data visualization is also provided in According to Table II, there are differences between the
this module. interpretation of the SCADA application and the offline analysis
by PT.PLN (Persero), except the Duval method. The different
4. Temperature Application results for Key gas, Roger ratio and Doernenburg ratio are partly
due to the dissimilar initialization methods used in off-line and
This application module will produce alarm when hotspot
SCADA application, i.e., off-line analysis didn’t follow any
and top oil temperature rise exceed the standard tolerance limits
initialization condition while the SCADA application starts
[7]. For easy visualization and analysis, raw data, exponential
performing diagnosis if data exceeds the lower limits mentioned
moving average and standard deviation result are displayed in
graphs. in Table III [3].

5. Historical data analysis and data logging TABLE III. KEY GAS LIMITS USED FOR INITIALIZATION OF DISGNOSTIC
METHODS
In addition to being used online, data which are used in all
on-line monitoring applications can also be used for off-line Key gas H2 CH4 CO C2H2 C2H4 C2H6
analysis purposes. The historical data module can be used to
Limit (ppm) 100 120 350 1 50 65
store the necessary data in .csv format. This module is also
capable of plotting multiple parameters on the same graph, so
that the visual analysis and comparison become easier (see Fig.
5). Especially, cross checking different parameters could As IEC ratio method was not used in the off-line analysis,
provide additional clues leading to more convincing IEC ratio results from SCADA application is compared to Roger
interpretation. ratio of the off-line analysis results. The large difference in
CO2/CO is due to the fact that the SCADA application starts
interpretation only when CO2 exceeds 5000 ppm and CO
exceeds 500 ppm [3].

VII. PERFORMANCE OF SCADA APPLICATION BASED ON

ON-LINE RECORDED DATA
Unavailability of live data source to the developed SCADA
application left us to test the application with the next best option
of using on-line recorded data from an IED (ABB CoreTEC) and
loading them into SCADA application in the form of .CSV files.
The IED used in this investigation is mounted on an indoor
transformer with following ratings and recorded gas,
temperatures, moistures, load, cooling status and tap position
Fig. 5. Historical data application
every 10 minute.
• Production year = 1995
• Frequency = 50 Hz
• Capacity = 70 MVA
 • 220/20 KV; 3 phases
• Cooling = ODAF
A. Gas diagnostic module
According to the gas analysis presented in Fig. 6, this
transformer seems to have a thermal fault. The TDCG value
shows condition 3, and several gasses exceeding normal limit
(condition 1). It means this transformer should further be
investigated by other transformer diagnostic methods.
Fig. 6. Gas diagnostic application
As mentioned in section IV, gas trend analysis could be
useful in detecting incipient fault conditions, which is included
in the SCADA diagnostic module. Even if there is no gas or
TDCG value in condition 1 based on [3], it is worth to check the
rate of change and trend of each gas. Rate of change is estimated
as the last and first exponential moving average values in a
certain interval. In the on-line recorded data set presented in Fig.
7, rate of change of gas value is very small (close to zero). Fig.
7 shows trends for each gas for a one-year period.
Fig. 7. Gas trends application
B. Temperature diagnostic module
On-line recorded temperature data from the same source,
mentioned in the beginning of section VII, shows that the
temperature rise for top oil and hotspot temperature are still in
normal condition. The hotspot temperature maximum value is
about 67 oC and minimum value is about 16 oC. Temperature
trend and rate of change also still in normal limits, where rate of
change value close to zero (see the screenshot of the temperature
application shown in Fig. 8).
However, the observation of normal hotspot temperature is
contradictory to the interpretation results from the DGA analysis
during the same time period, presented in section VII.A, which
predicts a thermal fault. This kind of contradictory observations
in different monitoring parameters deserve detailed further
investigations and the historical data module provided in the
SCADA application (see Fig. 5) is very useful for that matter to
cross check selected monitoring parameters on the same time
axis. The reason for such contradictory results could most
probably be due to a very localized heat source (discharge, arc,
etc.) generating gas, which may not dissipate enough heat to
influence the top oil temperature. As hotspot temperature is
strictly load related, it is not affected by non-load related
phenomena.
Fig. 8. Temperature diagnostic application.
C. Moisture in Oil diagnostic module
On-line recorded data from the indoor transformer contains
moisture in oil reading as well, which seems to be very low and
barely varying as seen in Fig. 9. In this case, there is no off-line
moisture in oil analysis available for the comparison with on-
line recorded data.
Fig. 9. Moisture diagnostic application.
 VIII. CONCLUSIONS
1. Online condition monitoring and diagnostic of power
transformers can be implemented in a SCADA system using
IEDs with right communication to the station level. This
provides an integrated single interface on transformer
condition and health to the operator along with other
control, monitoring and protection status of the station
equipment.
2. Rate of change and trend analysis on the data received by
SCADA application can be used to detect incipient faults in
transformers and provide warnings before actual alarm
triggered by absolute tolerance limits.
3. Importance of cross-comparison and combined analysis of
different monitoring parameters and analysis methods is
pointed out in the case study presented in section VII, where
thermal fault predicted by DGA methods is not in line with
estimated hot spot temperature deemed normal. Tools
provided in the proposed SCADA application support this
kind of cross comparison among parameters effectively.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was carried out as a master thesis at ABB
Corporate Research in Sweden with supervision from Nilanga
Abeywickrama and Robert Saers. Their guidance and
supervision are greatly appreciated by the authors.
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