Replacement versus refurbishment end of life options for power transformers

End of life for any transformer, always entails considerable expenditure by the owner. Various ends of life options are available and these must be considered case by case for each transformer approaching its end of life. Three late life or end of life options are available, namely, reconditioning, refurbishment, and replacement. Reconditioning may be a lower cost option, but it still remains costly and time consuming with restricted guarantees at the end of the process. Refurbishment costs are high essentially because of design constraints, and the effects of the unknown. Rewinding will give little or no improvement in the overall costs of loss capitalisation. Replacement with a new unit can provide the economies of first cost based on improved design for manufacture and assembly, more efficient use of materials, and improved manufacturing equipment and techniques. Response times are also reducing and are beginning to approach refurbishment spans. On the negative side, scrapping a transformer is expensive and the offset gained from the scrap value of the copper has only minor effect on the overall cost calculation pertaining to end of life