Can You Afford Not To? The Real Cost of Transformer Downtime and the Case for Hydrogen-Based Transformer Monitoring
When transformers fail, minutes of downtime can translate into millions of dollars in losses. However, the consequences can extend far beyond the balance sheet. Depending on their location and purpose, transformer failure can leave critical infrastructure like hospitals, air traffic control systems or water treatment facilities vulnerable and inoperable.
The good news is that facilities and operators are no longer limited to a once-a-year check-up to identify a transformer’s condition. For utility operators and industrial facilities tasked with maintaining essential services and operations, continuous online monitoring provides essential, regular insight and visibility into transformer health.
What’s changed? Continuous monitoring has always been a good idea. Now, however, new sensor technology makes it affordable.
One of the most reliable key indicators of transformer abnormal events is the presence of dissolved hydrogen (H₂) in the liquid insulation. Today’s technology provides an easy, cost-effective method to reliably and accurately collect continuous data related to this key gas, data that helps facility managers or utilities make informed decisions about these critical assets along with providing advance alert status of a coming transformer failure.
When Did Hydrogen Alone Become a Key Indicator?
Online hydrogen-based transformer monitoring isn’t new – in fact, it’s been evolving for decades. The first “gas-in-oil” sensors, introduced in the 1970s, gave grid operators a revolutionary way to detect internal faults early.1 “Since the 1990s, transformer on-line monitoring systems have been developed to such an extent that the condition of all major parts of the transformer can be assessed. […] These techniques cannot prevent failure of transformers, but they can prevent costly repercussions associated with transformer failures by allowing the user to take corrective action during the operating life.”5 In 2005, the introduction of online DGA (Dissolved Gas Analysis) monitors with membrane extraction methods allowed for proven hydrogen measurement in parts per million (ppm), ushering in a new era of transformer diagnostics.
Building on these advances, solid-state hydrogen sensors now provide continuous insights. Since those first years, technology to accurately detect this key hydrocarbon gas with minimized levels of cross-sensitivity to other gases has evolved: solid-state hydrogen sensors now provide continuous insights, not just on hydrogen levels, but also oil temperature, moisture content (in relative saturation% % and ppm), and pressure. These sensors are small, affordable and maintenance-free, with no need for calibration. These features make them ideal for both critical and lower-risk transformers across the grid.
High Stakes Demand Technological Improvements
This evolution in technology comes at a critical time. With today’s grid under increasing pressure, the stakes are high. The current challenges that the industry faces have applied pressure in areas including:
- Demand: As electricity consumption grows and infrastructure ages, the risk of transformer failures rises. Demand for replacement equipment is also at an all-time high, as long as 120 months, causing longer delivery times.
- Data: The shift toward digital substations and smart grids demands more continuous data to support predictive maintenance. As the workforce changes and the experienced “old-timers” retire and disappear, so does the tribal knowledge they carry, forcing new industry workers to sink or swim when it comes to managing one transformer assets in their list of responsibilities.
- Decision-Making: Fast, informed decisions are only possible when you have reliable data to back up these decisions. As a step further, it’s one thing to have the data, but converting that data to information takes time, and understanding what that data is trying to tell you requires a skill set that is built and nurtured over time.Often, transformer managers do not have the time to invest in making a fully informed decision. They must depend on the information at hand, often delaying the investigation or solution process, or worse yet, might be forced to ignore the situation altogether.
Online transformer monitoring of hydrogen gas plays a key role in addressing these challenges. It’s the earliest indicator of abnormal transformer states, including partial discharge, arcing and thermal degradation of the liquid insulating system. Utilizing sensors that monitor hydrogen levels provides operators with early insight into the transformer condition—identifying abnormalities before a catastrophe occurs.
The Domino Effect of Neglecting Transformer Monitoring
When a transformer fails, the cost goes far beyond the price of a new unit. Especially in industrial and manufacturing environments, downtime can have a domino effect:
- Lost production and sales
- Damaged equipment and materials
- Supply chain delays
- Safety and environmental risks
- Impact on customer experience and reputation
According to a study by ITIC and Emerson, downtime can cost large enterprises more than $5 million per hour.2 For manufacturers with continuous operations, even a brief unplanned outage can lead to massive revenue loss. The graph below from ITIC 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Report displays the respondents’ estimated costs of one hour of hourly downtime.
Example: Downtime Math3 – The Argument for Transformer Monitoring
Let’s say a facility operates 24/7 for 350 days per year (accounting for 15 days of scheduled outages). That’s:
- 8,400 hours of annual production time (24 hrs x 350 days)
- A transformer fails unexpectedly. It takes 7 days (168 hours) to source and commission a replacement.
That’s 168/8,400 = 2% of annual production capacity lost—permanently.
If the facility generates $100 million in annual revenue, that 2% downtime results in a $2 million loss, all from a single transformer failure.
Modern hydrogen sensors are no longer cost-prohibitive. For a fraction of the price of legacy single-gas DGA systems and today’s multi-gas systems, today’s solid-state sensors, such as the sensors manufactured by H2scan, deliver continuous, reliable monitoring that can aid in the detection of incipient faults and enhance your DGA strategy, avoiding multi-million-dollar failures.
With a small capital investment, utilities and industrial operators can:
- Identify incipient abnormalities before they escalate
- Extend transformer life
- Reduce maintenance costs
- Minimize unplanned outages
“Continuous online monitoring […] will immediately communicate any significant deterioration in the condition through an alarm or message to alert staff to take appropriate action.”4 Online hydrogen monitoring is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It’s a cost-saving necessity. With today’s affordable, zero-maintenance sensors, you no longer have to choose which transformer will receive a single DGA monitor; now you can evaluate the health of your entire transformer fleet, avoid catastrophic failures, and make smarter, data-driven maintenance decisions. “Continuous Online Monitoring can form the basis for CBM and effectively reduce the risk of unexpected catastrophic failure.”4
In the end, the real question isn’t can you afford it – it’s can you afford not to?
Cost-effective Hydrogen Sensors Allow Fleetwide Transformer Monitoring
For utilities and industrial operations facing diverse transformer monitoring challenges, H2scan offers field-proven solutions designed for specific operational environments:
GRIDSCAN® 5010: Continuous Monitoring Without Interruptions
Unlike traditional sensors, H2scan’s GRIDSCAN® 5010 perpetually self-calibrates for uninterrupted monitoring of transformer assets with demanding monitoring needs. This ensures industrial operations never miss critical early warning signs of transformer deterioration in even the most demanding use cases.
HY-VAULT™ System: Streamlining Underground Monitoring
Unlike other products that require expensive, custom integration, the HY-VAULT™ system presents an innovative solution to an age-old problem—how to safely and affordably monitor transformer health in underground vaults that are typically hazardous, extremely confined spaces. For the first time, HY-VAULT enables utilities to remotely monitor dissolved hydrogen gas in a cost-effective manner that easily allows for fleet-wide vault deployment
Ready to protect your bottom line from costly transformer failures? Contact H2scan today to learn which hydrogen-based transformer monitoring solution offers the right, tailored solution for your operation. Our field-proven technology delivers outstanding ROI by helping prevent expensive downtime while providing the continuous data insights needed for teams and managers to make well-informed decisions. Visit h2scan.com or call us at 661-485-3591 to discuss how our field-proven hydrogen sensor technology can aid your operations.
References:
- https://www.mte.ch/data/files/New%20technologies%20expand%20the%20performance%20range%20of%20Online-DGA-Systems.pdf
- https://itic-corp.com/itic-reports-surveys/2023-itic-reports-surveys-copy/
- https://elscotransformers.com/blog/the-cost-of-transformer-failure-in-manufacturing/
- CIGRE, Guide for transformer maintenance (445), 2011.
- CIGRE, Transformer Reliability Survey (642), December 2015
Initial fault identification chart. Source: Bustamante, Dissolved Gas Equipment for Online Monitoring of Transformer Oil: A Review, 2019.
About the Author: Traci Hopkins
