Battery energy storage systems are changing how the transformers that serve them operate, and most monitoring strategies have not caught up. The transformer at a BESS site is often the main grid step-up (GSU) unit that interfaces the storage system with the wider network. It now absorbs a duty cycle unlike anything traditional substation or industrial transformers were built for...
Gas concentration limits are guidance values, not pass/fail criteria. Yet in practice, many online systems still lean on static thresholds that ignore a unit's design, age, and operating history. That mismatch produces two failure modes. Either a flood of nuisance alarms hits right after commissioning, or thresholds get set so high that a real fault sails through undetected...
Dynamic Ratings introduces its latest advancement in transformer monitoring at CIGRE Paris 2026: Partial Discharge monitoring integrated into the C50 platform.
Somewhere on your plant floor right now, a stator winding could be quietly breaking down. Deep within its insulation, a small void is sparking — invisible to the eye, undetectable by a thermal camera, and easy to miss until the motor trips off unexpectedly. That spark has a name, partial discharge (PD). For rotating equipment, that partial discharge erosion is expensive to ignore...
If you spend enough time working with transformer monitoring systems or broader asset monitoring programs, one thing becomes clear fairly quickly. Collecting data is no longer the challenge. Most utilities today have access to large volumes of condition data across their assets. The real challenge lies in interpreting that data, understanding what it means in context...
The transition to wind and solar power has led to significant changes in the way electrical power is generated, transmitted, and distributed. Large-scale integration of renewable generation has altered power system dynamics, introducing new operating conditions across the grid. As a result, the stability utilities once took for granted...
Cooperative utilities and municipalities are operating in an environment defined by rising demand, increasing system complexity, and aging transformer fleets while operating with limited staffing and capital flexibility. At the same time, small operational teams are responsible for maintaining reliability across large geographic service areas...
Transformer failure data from major industry studies show that outages and catastrophic failures continue to result in significant financial losses for utilities and industrial operators. In many cases, post-event analysis reveals that early warning signs were present but went undetected. The conclusion is uncomfortable but clear. Many transformer failures are preventable when developing issues are identified early...
As assets begin to reach a failure-prone age, utilities face a growing wave of outages, costly repairs, and mounting regulatory pressure. Aging assets are silently straining the grid, and expectations for reliability and sustainability continue to rise. Complete equipment replacement may sound logical on paper, but in reality, large-scale replacement programs strain capital budgets, require extended outages...
