Latest news

The University Transformer Research Alliance was established in 2019 by five nationally leading transformer research groups from UK, Germany, Australia and China. These five universities are The University of Queensland, The University of Manchester, University of Stuttgart, Tsinghua University, and Xi'an Jiaotong University.

The aim is to foster advanced transformer research in alignment with low-carbon Energy requirements.

Posted: 4 December 2020

TIC contributed to API Summer School lecture. Professor Tapan Saha delivered a lecture on February 26 on the topic of "Australasian Transformer Innovation Centre and Transformer Research at UQ" at the API SUMMER SCHOOL 2020 at Sunshine Coast. Dr Chandima Ekanayake led a Syndicate project of 'Balancing Transformer Life Expectancy with Technical Specification and an Economic Need to avoid Intrusive Maintenance over Whole of Transformer Life'. Both lectures were well received by the participants.

Posted 15 April 2020

Engineers Australia (EA)-Electrical Branch of Queensland had a technical visit at the TIC on November 11, 2019. The TIC director, Prof. Tapan Saha was the host of the technical visit. Prof. Saha introduced the activities of the TIC to the engineers attending the event. Then TIC researchers Dr Hui Ma and Dr Dan Martin presented their research projects, which was followed by a vibrant discussion. Mr Ray Holzheimer, the Manager of TIC and Dr Chandima Ekanayake, the Deputy Director of the centre also attended the event. After a short tea break, the group visited the TIC facility, where the TIC staffs explained the facilities and projects. The TIC PhD students also briefly introduced their PhD projects on Silver Sulfide Corrosion of tap changer contacts and fiber optic based moisture measurements respectively.

Posted 15 April 2020

Powerlink Board visited the TIC on October 23, 2019. The TIC director, Prof. Tapan Saha  updated the board with the activities of the centre that had happened for the last two years. Prof. Saha mentioned that the TIC had 21 members from industry and four members from universities and  engaged in numerous primary research projects. Prod. Saha also highlighted that the TIC delivered five CPD courses in 2018 and 2019. The TIC researchers Dr Hui Ma and Dr Dan Martin spoke on their research activities. Mr Ray Holzheimer, the Manager of TIC and Dr Chandima Ekanayake, the Deputy Director of the centre attended the event and discussed research with the Board members. Then the Board visited the centre facility.

Posted 15 April 2020

This was the first series of Master Classes being delivered by the TIC . A unique feature was that, from the beginning, a balance between the research, science and capability of a leading insulation manufacturer Weidmann and the practical use of insulation in transformer design was to be struck. This was considered necessary to combine the material science of cellulosic insulation and the electrical, thermal and mechanical design principals of transformer design together. The Master Class was held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The Melbourne course included a tour of the Wilson transformer factory. This tour demonstrated the key design, manufacturing and testing aspects of transformer insulation.

Posted 28 April 2020

Looking for partners on project to ascertain how to optimally manage power transformers in networks with a high degree of large-scale solar and wind

Posted 1 April 2018

As more and more large-scale solar and wind is integrated into the grid, how does the utility determine of the best course of action between updating their power transformer fleet, or being able to defer investment by safely retaining ageing units? The Australian utilities cumulatively spend $200M annually maintaining their power transformer fleet, and this fgure may rise if power transformers become overloaded or subjected to power quality problems from the inverters of this renewable generation. The objective of this programme is to develop and deliver tools for the industry to ascertain the best value in whether to continue to operate existing power transformers, or to replace.

Does your utility see value in becoming a partner of this project?

Largest statistical analysis of Australian power transformer failure and retirement published

Posted: 17 March 2018

The UQ team have collected, collated and analysed reliability of 81,000 service years of Australian power transformer operation for failures and retirements. This study has been accepted for publication in the prestigious IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, and can be found here: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8316925/

UQ presents seminar on New Zealand and Australian power transformers to Transpower, the New Zealand national grid operator

Posted: 10 December 2017

The TIC reseacher gave a presentation to Transpower engineers in Wellington comparing the reliability of New Zealand transmission power transformers to those operated by the Australian utilities.

The aim is to extend the 2016 failure survey of Australian-owned power transformers to also include data from other countries, to compare the effect of different loading and maintenance strategies.

UQ presents at Open Session with CIGRE A2 Transformer Specialists

Posted: 4 September 2017

The ITEE TIC team has given a seminar to industry on Australian power transformer failure statistics during the CIGRE A2 open session held at Powerlink Queensland

UQ was invited by the CIGRE study committee on transformers to help the delegates from industry understand why transformers have been failing so they can mitigate potential problems. This seminar was based on the results of the 2016 Australian power transformer survey conducted at UQ.

UQ and Powerlink Queensland article commended at IEEE PES General Meeting

Posted: 14 June 2017

An article on Australian power transformer reliability statistics was selected by the 2017 IEEE PES General Meeting as one of the best papers submitted to this conference. This article was co-authored with the Queensland transmission utility Powerlink Queensland.

The UQ team have been working on analysing the data from the 2016 Australian power transformer survey to improve the industry’s understanding of risk. A software tool for the partners (Ausgrid, Ergon Energy, Powerlink Queensland, TransGrid and Wilson Transformer Company) to quantify the number of power transformers expected to fail into the near future has been released. This study has been exceptional because it has used a sample size of 6,000 units, far larger than other surveys.

Higher Degree by Research scholar wins prize at EAIT Postgraduate Conference

Posted: 10 June 2017

PhD student, Muhammad Ansari, won the prize for Best First year Presentation at this year's EAIT Postgraduate Conference, for his work on using fibre optics to measure the water content of transformer insulation. Muhammad's work will help utilities improve the reliability of their network by detecting problems inside a power transformer before failure occurs.

• Issue 1/22: Study on Down-Sizing Inverter Transformer in Solar Farms (Pages: 44-45) (PDF, 1.5 MB)
• Issue 1/21:  Effect Of Sensor Location On Vibro-Acoustic Measurement-Based Transformer Condition Assessment (Pages: 22-23) (PDF, 2.3 MB)
• Issue 6/20:  Advances In Condition Monitoring Of Transformers: Fibre Optics Based Moisture Sensing (Pages: 46-48) (PDF, 1 MB) 
• Issue 5/20:  Potential Mitagation Strategies To Prevent Silver Sulphide Corrosion In A Transformer Oltc (Pages: 28-29) (PDF, 2.3 MB)
• Issue 1/20: Master Class Power Transformer Insulation (Pages: 32-33) (PDF, 1 MB)
• Issue 6/19:  Transformer Insulation Master Class (Pages: 34-35) (PDF, 1 MB)
• Issue 6/19: How To Connect With Your On Load Tap Changers and Save $$ (Pages 32-33)
• Issue 5/19: The Impact Of High Penetrations Of Rooftop PV On OLTC (Pages: 43-44) (PDF, 0.9 MB)
• Issue 4/19: How Will Large Scale PV Change The Usage of Power Transformers? (Pages 32-33) (PDF, 1.5 MB)
• Issue 3/19:  Power Transformer Testing - Gradle To Grave (Page: 11) (PDF, 403.4 KB)
• Issue 3/19:  Partial Discharge Analytic Tools For Ester Fluid Filled Transformers (Page: 10) (PDF, 385.8 KB)
• Issue 1/19:  Power Transformer Mineral And Ester Oils-Analysis & Management(Pages: 10-11) (PDF, 847 KB)
• Issue 6/18:  Power Transformer Hv Bushings - Design, Maintenance And Risk Mitigation (Pages: 30-31) (PDF, 0.9 MB)
• Issue 5/18:  What Is Tic ? (Page: 41) (PDF, 489.9 KB)
• Issue 4/18: A Statistical Analysis Of Australian And New Zealand Power Transformer Fires And Explosions (Pages: 28-29) (PDF, 1 MB)
• Issue 3/18: Transformer Innovation Centre (Tic) Updates  (Pages: 36-37) (PDF, 459.4 KB)
• Issue 1/18: New Research Cuts Transformer Life Cycle Costs (Pages: 42-43) (PDF, 531.4 KB)
• Issue 2/18: Does Asset Management Of Power Transformers Have To Change To Accommodate Large-Scale Solar And Wind? (Page 155) (PDF, 355.8 KB)
• Issue 6/17: Double Page Training Promotion– (Published Page: 44-45) (PDF, 703.9 KB)
• Issue 5/17: First Continuous Professional Development Course (Published Pages: 34-35) (PDF, 489.9 KB)
• Issue 4/17: Tic Commences First Research Project (Published Pages: 20-21) (PDF, 349.6 KB)
• Issue 2/17: Progress Report From Tic On Innovation Projects (Page 138-139) (PDF, 495.9 KB)
• Issue 1/17: Transformer Innovation Centre Launch In Brisbane (Published Page 1) (PDF, 307.9 KB)