A Review of Methods for Diagnosing Incipient Faults in Power Transformers using Dissolved Gas Analysis

Abstract

Power transformers play an important role in ensuring efficient and reliable transmission and distribution of electrical power. Their failure can lead to significant disruptions in power supply and safety concerns. Transformer incipient faults may occur due to various reasons, including electrical, mechanical or environmental factors. They develop slowly and can lead to serious damage if not diagnosed and corrected in time. In this review, various techniques for diagnosing this category of faults are highlighted before focusing on Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA). Discussion on DGA centres on the traditional methods for fault diagnosis as well as various stand-alone and hybrid artificial intelligence techniques developed to improve the fault diagnostic ability of the traditional methods.

Detection of Incipient Faults in Power Transformers using Fuzzy Logic and Decision Tree Models Based on Dissolved Gas Analysis

“…DRM employs six gases and four ratios as specified in Table 2 for diagnosing thermal and electrical faults. The diagnostic procedure entails confirming that the concentration of at least one fault gas in a ratio surpasses the required L1 concentration limit [1], [10]. As a concentration ratio method its conventional version may yield inconsistent diagnoses when compared to other ratio methods due to variations in ratio ranges.…”