What is My Transfo

• Riccardo Actis
  Mineral oil to natural ester a validated practice for transformer retrofilling – p. 1
• Omar Ali Al-Ghamdi
  Case history of an asset and risk management and maintenance strategy of oil-filled power transformers with corrosive sulfur in the Middle East area On-load integrated treatment of giant power transformers in a severe scenario – p. 9
• Michel Donnadieu Bellon
  100 MVA transformer upgrading for noise reduction and better performance – p. 19
• Fabrizio Ferrari
  Photovoltaic plants, the role of transformers and related design key points in Renewable Energy – p. 37
• Veronika Haramija
  DGA, the ultimate tool for detecting anomalies in electrical equipment with insulating fluids – from basic concepts to real case studies – p. 45
• Ufuk Kivrak
  Is There a Green Future for the Transformer Industry? – p. 55
• Riccardo Maina
  Additives in natural esters what, when, how, and why – p. 69
• Riccardo Maina
  The involvement of reactive and insulat-ing materials in predictive diagnostics for transformers – p. 77
• Tony McGrail
  Condition Monitoring in the Renewables: Special Considerations – p. 83
• Vojko Mrdic
  Using DVtest (DRM) method to detect bad contacts inside on-load tap changers – p. 91
• Alfredo Ortiz Fernández
  The effect of temperature in the designs of power transformers that use biode-gradable esters as coolant (BIOTRAFO) – p. 97
• Bruce Pahlavanpour
  Revised IEC Standard for Maintenance of In-Service Insulating Liquid – p. 105
• Armando Pastore
  Challenging Aspects in Technologies and Design of High Voltage Transformer Bushings – p. 109
• Diego Pattaro
  LFH (Low Frequency Heating) application case studies, performance, and benefits of this technique for on-site dehumidification of electrical transformers – p. 121
• Christian Pössniker
  Is bubble formation a limiting factor for transformer short-time emergency overloading? – p. 135
• Diego M. Robalino
  A compendium of transformer testing best practices and novel methodologies for field condition assessment – p. 153
• Oleg Roizman
  Online Continuous Measurement and Interpretation of Moisture in Transformers – p. 161
• Sameera Samarasinghe
  Formation, Pre-Detection, and Mitiga-tion of Silver Sulfide Corrosion on On-Load Tap Changers (OLTCs) 171
• Jean Sanchez
  Oil Analysis on High Voltage Bushings: Use of Fleet Statistics – p. 177
• Fabio Scatiggio
  New insulation systems for high thermal performances and greener transformers – p. 183
• Rafał Zaleski
  Importance of Correct Procurement Process of Power Transformers – p. 189

James Reid holds a MSc Reliability Engineering & Safety Management from Heriot Watt University and a BEng Chemical Engineering from University of Edinburgh. He has been a chartered Chemical Engineer with the IChemE since 2002 and is also a member of ASTM. Based in the UK, James leads the technical applications team providing global support for all the ester-based products manufactured by global specialty materials company M&I Materials, including the MIDEL range of dielectric liquids. Prior to joining the technical team at M&I Materials in 2019, James has over two decades experience in technical and operational management roles with major UK utility, leading international chemical, and specialist oil companies.

Jean SANCHEZ is senior transformer engineer at EDF, French main generation utility, mostly on investigations, tests and its associated diagnosis, Factory Acceptance Tests, HV bushings, fleet assessments. He’s involved in IEC and CIGRE working groups. He completed a PhD degree on power transformers fault diagnosis in 2011 with a French power transformer reparation factory, TSV.

Ufuk Kivrak has BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering. He has more than 25 years of industrial experience in transformers and power grid industries. He has worked for ABB in several management positions in Turkey, Thailand and Switzerland. He has led Supply Chain Management organization of ABB Transformer business globally from 2003 to 2015, which included explosive growth of transformer market from 2003 to 2008, which was followed by a market collapse in 2009 and onwards. In 2015, he has joined Alstom Grid as VP-Strategic Sourcing and continued as Head of Strategic Sourcing in GE Grid Solutions after Alstom was acquired by GE. Currently he is Managing Director of SCM Consulting GmbH.

Armando Pastore received his mechanical engineering master’s degree from University of Naples Federico II. After the graduation he had different experiences in automotive and railway sectors. He joined the power grid business sector in 2012 working as R&D mechanical engineer and product industrialization with special focus on transformer and wall bushings for HVDC application. Since 2015 he has been working at GE Grid Solution covering different roles as engineering manufacturing, production, technical and product manager. In 2022 he has been appointed chair for Italy SC 36A – Insulated bushings.

Riccardo Actis was born in 1969 He holds a degree in mechanical engineering, obtained from Polytechnic University of Turin in 1995. Today he is the Global Operation Manager of the On-Site Service Department at Sea Marconi, with more than 25 years of experience in organization and follow-up of on-site work activities, in Italy, France, Spain, and other countries (KSA, Argentina, Uruguay, Japan). Riccardo has a deep knowledge of condition-based maintenance, as well as treatment and decontamination techniques of insulating liquids.

Head of the Laboratory for Physical and Chemical Testing since 2016. Main areas of expertise are related to testing of insulating and construction materials with condition assessment, e.g., dissolved gas analysis for transformer condition assessment, insulating oil monitoring, specific requirements and compatibility testing of insulating materials, recommendations for materials and equipment handling, investigations of faults and post-mortem analyses.

Vojko Mrdic has been working as applications engineer in transformer testing group at DV Power, a well-known manufacturer of test and measurement equipment for electric power industry. His responsibilities include development of new methods for transformer testing, providing technical support to DV Power customers, as well as performing on-site field testing. Before joining DV Power 13 years ago, he had been working at the large apparatus manufacturer Energoinvest RAOP for 1 year as a junior engineer in circuit breakers and instrument transformers development department. Vojko has a BSc diploma degree in electrical engineering from the University of East Sarajevo.

Roberto Fernández is an experienced Electrical Engineer who has spent most of his career on the transformer design field and R&D activities focused on the magneto-electric and thermal design for a wide range of transformer applications. He is member of the IEC, CIGRE and several national and international working groups. He is currently the Application Technical Leader at Cargill Bioindustrial.

Alfredo Ortiz Fernández is Professor in the area of Electrical and Energy Engineering at the University of Cantabria.
His research focused on the analysis of the quality of electrical energy, electromagnetic and thermal studies of electrical machines and optimization of energy systems in buildings. On these topics, he has supervised 6 doctoral theses, published 73 publications, 50 of them considered by the Journal of Citation Report (JCR-index), more than 80 congress communications, and 5 book chapters.
He has also participated in several national and European research projects. He has also participated or led several projects contracted by important private companies such as Repsol, Iberdrola, Eon, Gas Natural, Nissan or Robert Bosch. Moreover, he is also Associate Editor of Electrical Engineering-Archiv für Elektrotechnik and he is an active member of national and international working groups in the area of power transformers, such as the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the European Commission for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and CIGRE.

Field Service engineer since 1976 working for Merlin-Gerin on GIS Switchgear, Schneider Electric Equipment, JST Tranformateurs , following in SIEMENS as African Aera sales Manager and JST Maintenance as business development

Dr. Sameera completed his Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Honors) and Master of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. After graduating, he worked as a High Voltage Laboratory Instructor at the University of Peradeniya and as a Research Assistant in the Condition Monitoring Team at the Engineering Design Centre. He then pursued his PhD at the University of Queensland, Australia. Following that, he joined the same university as a postdoctoral research fellow, where he investigated the use of drone footage and Machine Learning technologies for detecting overhead conductor defects. After completing his fellowship, he became a consultant at EA Technology, one of the world’s leading asset management consultancy service providers. Currently, he works as an asset strategy engineer at Energy Queensland, the largest distribution network service provider in Australia.

Fabrizio Ferrari was born in Pavia (Italy) in 1968. He is a Senior Consultant for CESI, for some major Utilities (e.g. EGP, A2A) and for transformer manufacturers. He has experience in small, medium and large power transformers and the main HV, MV and LV components. Previous experience as Quality and Environmental Management Systems Responsible in Italian leader transformer manufacturer Groups. Member of IEC/CEI TC 10, TC 14, TC 36 and TC 68, member of CENELEC TC 14, member of CIGRE A.2 and T&D Europe. Chairman of “Transformers Group” in ANIE Energia (Federation associated to Confindustria).