Extending the Life of Power Transformers of Traction Substations of Alternating Current of Electric Railways

The article proves the relevance of extending the life of power transformers of traction substations of alternating current of electric railways. The service life of the transformers of many substations on the Far East Railway exceeds the standard service life. Replacing existing transformers with new ones will require huge investments. Every fourth case of transformer failure is associated with damage to the winding insulation. According to the results of the analysis of the operation of transformers, it was proved that the wear of winding insulation is uneven. To assess the wear of winding insulation of existing transformers, a method has been developed that allows determining the residual insulation resource. To reduce the wear rate of winding insulation, which limits the life of existing transformers, new connection schemes are proposed. Extending the life of the winding with the greatest insulation wear increases the life of the transformers. Determination of the predicted life of the corresponding transformer by thermal wear of winding insulation ensures their monitoring in operation. The determination of the relative wear of winding insulation in retrospect is based on the analysis of the executed train schedules. For each substation, a transformer connection diagram is determined, which ensures a decrease in the wear rate of winding insulation, which limits the life of the transformer in the future. The work proves the technical and economic efficiency of extending the life of transformers of traction substations of alternating current of electric railways.