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An on-load tap-changer (OLTC) regulates the output voltage level of transformer by changing the winding voltage ratio without current interruption. It is one of the most expensive and vulnerable parts of power transformers. Therefore, modeling and condition monitoring (CM) of OLTCs are important for the power system operation. This paper presents a new modeling principle for OLTCs based on the circuit breaker (CB) arc models. There is a sequence of switching events with certain timings during each operation of OLTC. These switching operations are modeled individually and a full model of OLTC operation is derived. On the other hand, the instantaneous differential power of tap-changing transformer measured from its input and output terminals is used to calculate the arcing power and energy associated with OLTC operation. The cumulative arcing energy is a good indication of the electrical wear of OLTC contacts. Therefore, it is used to propose a novel CM algorithm for OLTCs. The proposed method considers the effects of both arcing voltage and current signals to accurately estimate the arcing energy. The results obtained from computer simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed algorithm accurately evaluates the electrical wear of OLTC contacts and determines the inspection or maintenance schedules of OLTC contacts. The measurements captured from the real-time test studies of OLTC operation verify and validate the performance of the proposed OLTC model.

This paper introduces a new algorithm for the early detection of abnormal arcing conditions of circuit breakers (CBs). Any interruption with a higher arcing time compared to maximum permissible arcing time (MPAT) of CB is defined as a CB failure to clear mode. Measuring CB arcing time is not easy because there is no control on the mechanical opening and closing instants of CB contacts. Nevertheless, there is a correlation between the spectral energy densities of CB arcing voltages and arcing times of CB. This correlation is used by calculating the spectral energy densities of the instantaneous system voltage and the instantaneous CB voltage across its terminals utilizing discrete Fourier transform (DFT) for two periods of the system frequency. The difference between the spectral energy densities at the fundamental frequency is defined as a criterion for identifying a failure to clear mode. Whenever this criterion exceeds a predefined trip level, it indicates the occurrence of a failure to clear mode. In this situation, a trip signal is initiated for adjacent CBs to isolate the faulted CB and the fault. The results obtained from computer simulations and measurements show that the algorithm discriminates between normal and abnormal arcing conditions of CB.

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