Transformers & Switchgear for Power Networks

Transformers & Switchgear for Power Networks

3 Day Course — 18 CPD Hours

Hosted by Clearscope

Course Content

Day One — Transformers

Design fundamentals

• Ratings and equipment classes
• Cooling arrangements, terminations and noise enclosures
• Tapchangers and the standards that govern them

Specification and procurement

• Building a company specification that holds up
• Loss evaluation and capitalisation
• Assessing manufacturers; commercial and contractual considerations
• Manufacturing oversight and acceptance testing

Delivery through to service

• Transport, installation, commissioning and handover into operation

Maintenance and oil analysis

• Maintenance regimes for the transformer and its tapchanger
• Interpreting oil sample results — and knowing their limits

Hands-on inspection

• Physical examination and operation of a transformer and tapchanger

Condition, health and failure

• Diagnostic techniques and condition assessment
• Building and using health indices
• Remedial work, refurbishment and life extension
• Failure and repair case studies from real investigations

Day Two — Switchgear Technology

Switchgear fundamentals

• The main types in service, what each is designed to do, and the components that make them work

Standards and procurement

• Applicable standards and writing a specification against them
• Assessment criteria and common procurement pitfalls

Switching phenomena and arc control

• Arc interruption theory
• How it plays out across air, oil, SF6 and vacuum interrupting media

Operating mechanisms

• Mechanism types, in-service behaviour and testing

Design considerations

• Design features and vacuum integrity
• Contact geometry and material selection
• How design choices shape reliability in service

Auto-reclosing and network automation

• Auto-reclose methodology and recloser types
• Remote operating capability

Operating environment

• Temperature and humidity effects
• Auxiliary components and their contribution to failure

Day Three — Lifecycle and Technology Direction

Installation and commissioning

• The full sequence and the testing that goes with it
• A worked example from start to finish

Failure mechanisms and analysis

• Investigation procedures and techniques
• Root causes of switchgear failure and what the analysis should drive you to do next
• Supporting case studies

Maintenance

• Maintenance standards and policy setting
• Determining genuine maintenance requirements

Condition assessment

• Asset management context and lifecycle thinking
• Condition assessment methods, condition monitoring and health indexing

Where the technology is going

• The future of gas-filled switchgear
• Circuit breaker monitoring
• Current and voltage sensors
• Point-on-wave switching and automation

Programme may be subject to amendment.

Who Should Attend?

• Network and plant engineers
• Asset managers
• Maintenance leads and supervisors
• Procurement and technical specification staff
• Engineers responsible for primary plant condition and renewal decisions

Overview

Few areas of the network have moved as fast in the last decade as transformer and switchgear technology. Engineers running distribution and transmission assets today are making calls their predecessors never had to — on materials, on monitoring, and on when to intervene rather than hold.

This three day programme is built for experienced engineers who need a working command of both asset classes rather than a textbook introduction. Over the three days you will cover how transformers and switchgear are designed, specified, bought, commissioned, maintained and eventually retired, alongside the switching physics that determines whether a system holds up under fault conditions.

The emphasis throughout is on decisions: which technology suits which duty, what a condition assessment is actually telling you, and where the industry is heading next. Real failure investigations are used throughout to connect theory to what engineers find when equipment comes apart.

What you will take away — transformers: the ability to specify and procure transformer assets with more confidence, read condition data properly, and put in place the practices that keep assets from deteriorating early. The course is aimed squarely at extending asset life and cutting the risk, and cost, of a disruptive failure.

What you will take away — switchgear: an understanding of the failure modes that matter, why switching phenomena drive so much of switchgear design, and how to build a maintenance and assessment regime that means the equipment operates when it is finally called on. You will also leave current on where the technology is heading.

Skill Level: Experienced — this is an update and consolidation course, not an introduction.

Duration: 3 Days — 18 CPD Hours

Hosted by: Clearscope

Cost: Free of charge to Power Grid Suppliers and Industry Members.

Places are limited. If you have any queries, please contact us by email training@irishsteel.ie or by phone (057) 867 0629

You can book your place by submitting the booking form.