CONTROL & MEASUREMENT Fiber Optic Temperature Monitoring for Critical
Industrial Applications Fiber optic temperature solutions extend power transformer performance and ensure accuracy in critical semiconductor production processes Power Transformers
Unprecedented growth in electric power consumption has created increasing demand for effective management and monitoring of what are among a utility company’s most valuable pieces of infrastructure - power transformers. Expected to work continuously over many years of service, these costly items present operators with a number of challenges when it comes to protection and preserving useful life.
Monitoring of transformer winding hot spots is critical to safeguarding transformers from damage and extending their usable life. Created by flux leakage from the transformer windings, hot spots are the transformer’s highest temperature area. Excessive heat can degrade the insulating paper on which transformer life depends, making units susceptible to catastrophic failure. As a result, accurately monitoring temperature conditions is critical. However, harsh environments that include complex temperature variants, high voltages, RFI and EMI make accurately measuring hot spot winding temperature difficult.
Because of this, conventional methods simulate or calculate hot spot temperature from oil monitoring, but do not accurately measure it. This can result in differences of up to 20 °C from the actual hot spot temperature. In addition, top & bottom oil measurements can introduce a significant time lag related to real winding temperatures. Because transformer aging rate doubles for every 6 °C over the temperature set point, inaccurate temperature measurements can lead to transformer damage and transformer loss of life.
Fiber optic monitoring addresses these challenges by sensing temperature directly in the windings. Advanced
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 Utility power transformers demand accurate hot spot measurement
Energy pioneered the field of fiber optic winding temperature measurement more than 40 years ago with its Luxtron range of Fluoroptic® thermometer (FOT) sensors and is a premier provider of direct, real-time hotspot monitoring and control outputs for the power utility industry. The company’s reliable, accurate fiber optic direct measurement systems – which are immune to high voltage, RFI, EMI, transformer oil, and SF6 gas – quickly detect and respond to hot spot conditions, triggering alarms and relays to protect valuable transformer assets.
Take, for example, AE’s ThermAsset®2 controller, which is designed to measure winding hot spots in real time and activate the transformer cooling system. This allows for optimum transformer operation at safe load capacity during overload conditions.
Semiconductor Manufacturing Advanced Energy is also a specialist in semiconductor manufacturing solutions, offering highly accurate power delivery, frequency tuning, and multi-level pulsing solutions for advanced plasma control in critical etching, deposition, inspection, implantation, and annealing processes.
Advanced Energy ThermAsset®2 controller
www.reviewonline.uk.com
Optimizing yield and throughput requires highly accurate temperature measurement and control. Fiber optic- based FOT technologies are becoming increasingly important. Take, for example, AE’s Luxtron range of fiber optic thermography technologies that have been designed to support precise process control for customer innovations. Leveraging fiber optic probes with phosphor sensor technology, Luxtron FOT sensing systems combine high-performance converters with an advanced light source, a proprietary software algorithm, and low-noise amplification circuitry.
11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
