In American markets, single phase
transformers are often installed in the distribution grid, where – as the last
step in the power transmission chain – they step down the voltage to household
voltage level. In light of increasing weather and climate extremes, such as
heat waves that cause wildfires, the design of new outdoor-installed assets needs
to be increasingly focused on their resilience to withstand environmental
hazards. Due to its cast-resin design (without oil), the self-extinguishing
CAREPOLE has a high level of fire safety, cannot explode, and reduces
environmental risks to a minimum.
“For a successful energy transition, we also
must rethink the power grid with a focus on making it greener and strengthening
its resilience. With our pole-mounted dry-type transformer, we are not just
closing a gap in the American market but also presenting a maintenance-free
alternative to oil-filled transformers that allows the more environmentally
friendly, more reliable, and cost-efficient operation of the distribution grid,”
says Eduardo Terzi, Senior Vice President Non-Switching Products at Siemens Energy.
Considering growing energy demand and the
fluctuating feed-in of renewable energy, the new transformer was designed to
handle high overloads to facilitate power flow balancing and satisfy real time
demand at any time. Sealed with cast-resin under vacuum, the compact windings
of the transformer allow for its approximately 20 percent smaller volume size compared
to a conventional liquid-filled pole-mounted transformer.
The high mechanical strength of the
CAREPOLE’s frame and cast resin protects it against corrosion and thereby
extends the transformer’s service life. At the same time, it prevents copper
and aluminum thieves from destroying the transformers and putting themselves
and others at risk. The new transformer is designed as a plug-and-play asset
with an identical fixing mechanism as fluid-immersed transformers, and is
therefore perfectly suited to replace existing installations.
On customer request Siemens Energy’s
digital transformer solution Sensformer can be added to CAREPOLE to optimize
operations and further increase reliability. Equipped with a smart IoT gateway,
the transformer can then transmit end-to-end encrypted data to an analytics and
visualization platform. Operators benefit from real-time insights on asset
health and fleet status. Thanks to these digital features, failures can be
localized and rectified as quickly as possible, or often even avoided by
identifying operational irregularities at an early stage.
CAREPOLE has a power rating between 10 and 100 kilovolt-amps (kVA), a voltage capacity between 15 and 36 kV and a typical
lifetime of over 25 years.