Study of the current performance of the European power transformer fleet

Abstract

In many countries, diverse legislations are today asking for more rational use of energy. For this reason, several initiatives are nowadays promoting a reduction of the overall energy consumption. The European Union has published a Directive 2009/125/EC which fix eco-design requirements to energy-related products. One of these products is power transformers which are a basic piece of generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of electrical energy. The operation of these machines implies the transformation of energy, a part of this energy is dissipated in electrical and magnetic circuits. The amount of losses produce by transformers is defined during the design of these machines. So, they must comply with the above EU Directive. In fact, the Official Journal of the European Union has set a list of energy efficiency limits to be fulfilled by new machines sold in Europe (Commission Regulation 548/2014). This article presents three parts. The calculation of the maximum performance is presented in the first part. This is independent of the load percentage, the impedance and the voltage level. A description of the European fleet of power transformer, up to 100MVA is presented on the second section. In the last part of this work, the efficiency of the fleet is analysed using the maximum performance concept and considering the EU Regulation.