Fault area network for electrical power transformers-a novel tool for on-line monitoring of large power transformers

On-line monitoring of transformers for the assessment of the health condition of costly capital equipment like an electrical power transformer, is a topic of heated discussions at several international conferences. Many times, the basic discussion pertains to the transformer being on-line or the device monitoring the transformer is on-line. Both these considerations are valid, however the availability of the on-line monitoring system being available to monitor the health of a transformer which is on-line is of greater importance to the operator as well as the utility. On-line monitoring systems configured as a fault area network can ease the exercise of monitoring several transformers located in a power substation. The paper describes this methodology developed for this system that we have developed and successfully used in real-time.