Taiwan Power Company chooses online DGA monitoring from Reinhausen
TPC replaces old online DGA with MSENSE® DGA
Taiwan Power Company (TPC) has been using online oil analysis equipment to monitor the condition of its transformer fleet for many years. However, the old systems are inefficient and are now very susceptible to failure. For the new DGA monitoring, TPC wanted a powerful system and therefore chose MSENSE® DGA from MR.
Online oil analysis devices play a key role in the analysis of the operational safety of oil-filled, paper-insulated power transformers. They make a measurable impact on extending the service life of transformers, as they are the most powerful option of detecting and analyzing errors in the windings of a transformer. These benefits were also well-known to our customer Taiwan Power Company (TPC) when they decided to equip their more than 2,000 power transformers with online DGA sensors over ten years ago. For the 69kV to 345kV segment, TPC chose very simple DGA sensors, so-called "smoke detectors", which only measure the total dissolved combustible gas (TDCG) share in the transformer oil. Generally, these devices are very inexpensive, but they can only provide a very vague picture of the transformer condition. Within few years, TPC had installed over 1,000 units of this inexpensive online DGA from a world market leader. Over the years, unfortunately, TPC has discovered many problems with their smoke detectors: Defective displays, wrong alarms and other failures were daily routine and caused high internal costs.
TPC was therefore looking for a working new online DGA monitoring solution that would also be technically more sophisticated and would search through at least two fault gases. Around the same time MR introduced its MSENSE® DGA3, which provides the following measuring components:
Hydrogen and carbon monoxide, as well as moisture in oil. This was exactly what TPC were looking for. Only a short time later a pilot installation was implemented and TPC was convinced of the performance spectrum of the MSENSE® DGA3:
- Hydrogen (H₂) as an indicator for thermal and electrical faults in the windings
- Carbon Monoxide (CO) as a clear sign for insulation paper degradation
- Moisture (H₂O) showing the insulation oil quality
- Earliest possible failure detection, as the head of the device’s sensor sits directly in the oil flow of the transformer
- Reliable measurement results through integrated compensation algorithm using an oil flow and temperature sensor
- Watch dog function that monitors the device status continuously
- Highly durable ball valve included in the scope of supply for every MSENSE®DGA 3: Easy installation at an existing valve
- Integrated oil sampling valve allows to take an oil sample directly at the point of measurement of the online-DGA sensor for better comparability with oil laboratory values
- Integrated Modbus RTU interface and further optional protocols available for communication with your SCADA system or MR’s ETOS® Embedded Transformer Operating System
Convinced by these unique advantages, Taiwan Power Company has already purchased more than 200 MSENSE® DGA 3 sensors to replace the competitor's failed TDCG devices. We are now looking forward to continuing this success story with the first deliveries of our new MSENSE® DGA 5/9.
