Grid Talk: Monitoring Distribution Transformers

So monitoring distribution transformers is very important to utility, both on the customer facing side and on the utility O&M expense side. On the customer facing side, the utility needs to know which transformers are in distress and which transformers are serving critical loads. Now we're talking single phase and three phase pole and pad mounted transformers. When you know which ones are at distress, then you can do something about it.

Now, when I was at the utility, the more experienced people there, they knew this in their head, they knew which transformers were more likely to fail. Their experience let them know that. If you can monitor the transformers directly, you can codify what they knew and you can address those critical loads. You can address those distressed assets and you can properly replace and resize transformers based on real data.