×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

CONSERVATOR TANK

CONSERVATOR TANK

CONSERVATOR TANK

(OP)
Can anyone tell me what the primary advantage in using a conservator tank on a substation power transformer is?

RE: CONSERVATOR TANK

The oil conservator (see 1 fig below) is an auxiliary tank that allows the dielectric liquid to flow into and out of this reservoir as the fluid in the main tank expands and contracts. Some design may have air bags sometime called bladders or diaphragms.

RE: CONSERVATOR TANK

They require less ongoing maintenance than a system fed by nitrogen regulator (which requires periodic N2 bottle changeout).

The do a better job at maintaining reliable and consistent positive pressure than a a sealed nitrogen system.

They may allow some devices for detective fault gases not available in other types of transformers (gas accumulation relay and buchholz).

(The initial cost is probably a little higher for a conservator system).

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

RE: CONSERVATOR TANK

Also you have much lower N2 in solution for conservator than for N2-blanketed transformer .  I haven't ever heard of N2 being a problem but in theory it can come out of solution during rapid cooling of oil.

Also you can expect to see different behavior in fault gases measured by DGA since the headspace on top of transformer is not there in a conservator. I'm not sure if this is advantage or disadvantage... just different.

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

RE: CONSERVATOR TANK

(OP)
Thanks for the comments!  I have another question: If the conservator tank breathes moisture-laden air from the outside, isn't or shouldn't this be a concern?

My own gut feeling is I would prefer having a sealed system with an N2 bottle to change, than having the oil exposed to outside air.  

I know the conservator tank allows the use of the Buchholz relay to detect dissolved gases in the oil, but with the advent of modern electronic dissolved gas systems, wouldn't a sealed N2 system with such a gas detection system be preferable to an air-breathing conservator tank?

RE: CONSERVATOR TANK

Conservator designs have breathers which use either silica gel  or a Peltier cooler dryer to maintain dry air within the conservator. A direct vent to atmosphere is asking for trouble and is not a feature of any normal conservator design.

----------------------------------
  I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

RE: CONSERVATOR TANK

The bladder that Cuky spoke of keeps the oil and air separated. Sometimes the silica gel is used in addition so that only dry air meets the bladder.

One design uses another oil chamber to keep moist air away from the transformer oil. Air>oil>N2>transformer oil. DGA from this transformer shows high O2, so this method is not as effective.

We had a bladder fail at an industrial substation (no dehydrating breather). I believe the quality of the atmosphere hastened it's demise.

I like the N2 blanket with a bottle, gages, and alarms. No bladder to fail, and if a bushing gasket should leak, it will leak N2 rather than oil, and the condition is alarmed.

RE: CONSERVATOR TANK

15 years ago I had to install wooden platforms under every every transformer N2 setup.  The platforms were designed so N2 bottle changeouts only required 1 man.  If there wasn't a platform for him to roll the bottle it was a two man job. After that I changed the transformer spec to conservator tanks only.  Hasn't been a problem whatsoever.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources