In less than two years, the prototype of a 400 kV autotransformer filled with natural ester was designed and manufactured, overcoming several difficult challenges that required both engineering and technological/industrial innovations.
The summer of 2019 has been a tremendous one for Elettromeccanica Tironi with two very important achievements having been accomplished within a mere 60-day period in June and July.
The first accomplishment was a successful short circuit withstand test performed on a 400 kV autotransformer, an important step to becoming recognized as one of the few large autotransformers’ manufacturers to have done so. But Elettromeccanica Tironi enters into a very reduced elite class with the second consecutive success: Another short circuit withstand test successfully passed, on the first attempt, of a 400 kV autotransformer filled with Envirotemp FR3 natural ester fluid derived from renewable vegetable oils.
This 250 MVA, 400/135±5x2% kV, KFAF autotransformer, successfully tested at the CESI lab in Rondissone, Turin (Italy), is one of the largest high voltage transformers filled with natural ester.
The project required not only new engineering to design a completely new unit taking into consideration the characteristics of FR3 natural ester, but also an investment in the Modena plant to create a fully separated and dedicated oil plant for natural ester along with a new Oil Lab.
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