{"id":14154,"date":"2020-03-12T10:30:23","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T09:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/?p=14154"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:33:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:33:43","slug":"transformer-cooling-made-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/industries\/transformer-cooling-made-easy_14154\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans\u00adformer cooling made easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Energy grids act as life\u00adlines for modern society. Without their constant supply of energy, smart\u00adphones wouldn\u2019t work, produc\u00adtion would come to a stand\u00adstill, and entire cities could no longer func\u00adtion. That is why the energy busi\u00adness is one that is built upon trust. Trust that consumers have in their energy suppliers, that energy suppliers have in the grid oper\u00ada\u00adtors, and that grid oper\u00ada\u00adtors have in their infra\u00adstruc\u00adture. Trans\u00adformers repre\u00adsent one impor\u00adtant part of this infra\u00adstruc\u00adture. The Czech company ETD produces trans\u00adformers in Pilsen. ETD has just shy of a century\u2019s worth of expe\u00adri\u00adence in manu\u00adfac\u00adturing trans\u00adformers, as the company has been active in the market since 1923.<\/p>\n

Michal Svoboda, who is respon\u00adsible for research and devel\u00adop\u00adment at ETD, states: \u201cOur long-standing involve\u00adment in the industry under\u00adlines that we are a reli\u00adable partner for our customers. After all, we\u2019ve had almost 100 years to perfect our exper\u00adtise. At the same time, however, we aren\u2019t resting on our expe\u00adri\u00adence from the past; the require\u00adments concerning energy grids are increasing, and, as a result, so are the wishes of our customers.\u201d That is why ETD has been building increas\u00adingly larger and more complex trans\u00adformers in recent years. This brings with it new chal\u00adlenges, both in terms of the trans\u00adformers them\u00adselves and with regard to periph\u00aderal aspects, such as the cooling process.<\/p>\n

Cooling \u2013 the straight\u00adfor\u00adward way<\/h2>\n

Trans\u00adformers are filled entirely with oil. It also surrounds the sensi\u00adtive mechan\u00adical and elec\u00adtrical compo\u00adnents. So that the oil doesn\u2019t get too hot, it flows through a cooling radi\u00adator, which is assem\u00adbled on the exte\u00adrior of the trans\u00adformer. In smaller trans\u00adformers, the ambient air is often suffi\u00adcient to cool the oil. Larger trans\u00adformers, however, also require an active cooling process. One option for this is to have sepa\u00adrate oil-air coolers\u200a\u2014\u200aattached to the trans\u00adformer, for example.<\/p>\n

Svoboda explains: \u201cAlthough these machines are extremely powerful, they form yet another complex tech\u00adnical system that is installed on the trans\u00adformer, and which could leak\u200a\u2014\u200aas a result of the trans\u00adformer vibra\u00adtions, for example. That is why customers often want a simpler and less fragile solu\u00adtion for the cooling process.\u201d For ETD, this solu\u00adtion comes in the form of fans placed directly on the radi\u00adator, either at the side or at the bottom. These fans direct the ambient air right past the lamellae of the radi\u00adator, which is what enables the cooling process to work effi\u00adciently.<\/p>\n

In recent years, ETD has been building increas\u00adingly larger and more complex trans\u00adformers, which also pose new cooling chal\u00adlenges.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

When searching for suit\u00adable fans, ETD was quickly drawn to ebm-papst. This was, in part, due to the specific search criteria laid out by the trans\u00adformer manu\u00adfac\u00adturer. As a result of increasing urban\u00adiza\u00adtion in many coun\u00adtries, trans\u00adformer substa\u00adtions that once stood on green\u00adfield sites are now often situ\u00adated near or in the middle of resi\u00adden\u00adtial areas. That is why one of the most impor\u00adtant criteria for ETD is for the trans\u00adformers to operate quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe quickly real\u00adized that the EC fans from ebm-papst aren\u2019t just powerful, but also very quiet. Thanks to their contin\u00aduous control char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtics, they also only ever operate at the speed required by the heat gener\u00ada\u00adtion.\u201d ETD was also impressed that ebm-papst offers suit\u00adable fans in all the neces\u00adsary sizes for this task\u200a\u2014\u200aright through to fans 1.25 meters in diam\u00adeter for partic\u00adu\u00adlarly large trans\u00adformers.<\/p>\n

Customized for the trans\u00adformer<\/h2>\n

Michal Svoboda can still clearly recall one of the first projects involving ebm-papst fans. Back then, ETD was building three large trans\u00adformers, each with a capacity of 350 MVA, for the Czech grid oper\u00adator \u010cEPS. \u201cUp until then, we had been using fans from a different manu\u00adfac\u00adturer, but these weren\u2019t avail\u00adable for this project in the right size, and they also weren\u2019t quiet enough to satisfy the legal noise regu\u00adla\u00adtions.<\/p>\n

We also wanted the new fans to be designed with the increas\u00adingly stricter ErP Direc\u00adtive in mind.\u201d Svoboda quickly found what he was looking for at ebm-papst and was also delighted with the excel\u00adlent consul\u00adta\u00adtion. \u201cEven though we\u2019re not purchasing huge volumes, ebm-papst modi\u00adfied the fans to fit exactly onto the cooling radi\u00ada\u00adtors of our trans\u00adformers, which meant we didn\u2019t have to alter the design in any way. This concerned the mounting and wiring of the fans in partic\u00adular, as well as the options for fitting them onto the trans\u00adformer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans from ebm-papst enable simple, effi\u00adcient and quiet cooling\u200a\u2014\u200athis is espe\u00adcially impor\u00adtant in resi\u00adden\u00adtial areas.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

As a result, ETD was able to deliver the trans\u00adformers to \u010cEPS on time and with the requested spec\u00adi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtions. The machines have been serving the grid oper\u00adator well for some years now, in a trans\u00adformer station near Pilsen. Jan Don\u010duk, a specialist in tech\u00adnical strategy at \u010cEPS, explains: \u201cThe cooling process is an inte\u00adgral part of a trans\u00adformer and plays a vital role in ensuring it oper\u00adates reli\u00adably and for a long period of time. Quiet oper\u00ada\u00adtion is becoming more and more impor\u00adtant here. The trans\u00adformers from ETD combined with the fans from ebm-papst meet all of these require\u00adments. So far, there have been no issues with this combi\u00adna\u00adtion, which is why I am very happy with the solu\u00adtion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re not purchasing huge volumes, ebm-papst modi\u00adfied the fans to fit exactly onto the cooling radi\u00ada\u00adtors.\u201dMichal Svoboda \u2013 respon\u00adsible for research and devel\u00adop\u00adment at ETD
\n<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For ETD, the task commis\u00adsioned by \u010cEPS was just the begin\u00adning of the collab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtion with ebm-papst. These days, their trans\u00adformers operate with ebm-papst fans of different sizes all over the world. \u201cSome of our machines are sent to the north of Russia, while others can be found in Egypt. That is why it is essen\u00adtial that all of the compo\u00adnents can deal with hot, cold, wet, and icy condi\u00adtions. This applies to the fans in partic\u00adular, as they are mounted in an exposed posi\u00adtion on the radi\u00ada\u00adtors,\u201d explains Svoboda. \u201cAt the moment we are designing and building a trans\u00adformer that is to be stationed in Chile. In this case, one of the many chal\u00adlenges is factoring in safety when it comes to earth\u00adquakes.\u201d It seems as though ETD still has plenty of work to be getting on with\u200a\u2014\u200aeven 100 years on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energy grids act as life\u00adlines for modern society. Without their constant supply of energy, smart\u00adphones wouldn\u2019t work, produc\u00adtion would come to a stand\u00adstill, and entire cities could no longer func\u00adtion. That is why the energy busi\u00adness is one that is built upon trust. Trust that consumers have in their energy suppliers, that energy suppliers have [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":14156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,9],"tags":[152,144,31],"class_list":["post-14154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fans","category-industries","category-refrigeration-ventilation","tag-axicool","tag-cooling","tag-ec-fan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22328,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154\/revisions\/22328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}