Determination of Withstand Capability of Power Transformers Under GIC Conditions

该研究项目旨在分析和确定地磁感应电流(GIC)对电力变压器运行的影响，并确定由于地磁感应电流引起的饱和和过热时变压器的承受能力。这对于北方变压器公司(NTC)等变压器制造商及其客户来说至关重要，以确保他们的变压器能够承受GIC压力，电力系统运营商能够在太阳风暴期间成功运行电力系统和变压器。相关的问题情况是由地磁扰动(GMD)现象造成的，也称为太阳地磁风暴或简称太阳风暴。如果发生高强度的GMD，可能会对电力系统造成广泛的影响，源于电力变压器。加拿大是全球最易受GMD影响的地区之一，对电力系统影响最大的GMD事件发生在加拿大。1989年3月，一场温和的太阳风暴导致魁北克水电系统停电，导致900万人断电超过8小时，估计最低损失为3亿美元。由于这种不利影响，北美电力可靠性公司(NERC)发布了两项重要标准，要求电力公用事业公司和系统运营商在电力系统的GMD和GIC流动期间进行GMD影响评估，并提供证据表明其变压器和系统不易发生故障和误操作。因此，为了解决提出的问题，电力公用事业公司和运营商要求变压器制造商提供其变压器在GIC条件下的承受能力评估。这样的评估需要i)新的先进型号和ii)特殊的测试方法和设置，即使在变压器制造商的实验室中也不常见。拟议的项目解决了上述挑战，并准确地确定了NTC在接受GIC时的变压器承受能力。

This research program aims to analyze and determine the impacts of the Geomagnetically Induced Current (GIC) on power transformers operation and determine the transformers' withstand capabilities when subjected to saturation and overheating due to GIC. This is crucial for transformer manufacturers such as Northern Transformer Corp. (NTC) and their clients to ensure that their transformers can withstand the GIC stresses and the power system operators can successfully operate the power system and transformers during solar storms. The associated problematic situations result from the Geomagnetic Disturbance (GMD) phenomenon, also referred to as solar geomagnetic storm or simply solar storm. If the GMD occurs with high intensity, it can result in widespread impacts on power systems originating from power transformers. Canada is one of the most vulnerable areas to GMD globally, and the most significant GMD incident to power system happened in Canada. In March 1989, a mild solar storm resulted in the Hydro--Quebec power system blackout, which left nine million people without power for more than eight hours with a minimum estimated cost of $300M. Due to such detrimental effects, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has released two important standards that require the power utilities and system operators to perform GMD impact assessments and provide evidence that their transformers and systems are not prone to failure and maloperation, during the GMD and the GIC flow in power systems. As a result and to address the raised concerns, the power utilities and operators require the transformer manufacturers to provide the withstand capability assessment of their transformers under the GIC conditions. Such assessments require i) new advanced models and ii) special test methods and setups that are not common even in the transformer manufacturers' labs. The proposed project addresses the above challenges and accurately determines the NTC's transformer withstand capabilities when subjected to GIC.