Digital revolution of power transformers

Transformer 4.0 (TRF4.0) is a research project led by EFACEC, A Portuguese company operating in the energy, engineering and mobility sectors, aimed at digitalising the life cycle of a complex product, the Power Transformer. The central developing concept is the Digital Twin of this product that, as the virtual counterpart of the physical system, will enable innovative approaches in the transformer design and manufacturing with new data and information management models and offer new added value services, such as intelligent condition monitoring, preventive maintenance, ageing evaluation conditions, among others. A Digital Twin-enabled platform, powered with optimization and artificial intelligence tools, enables valuable insights about designing future products and predicting the system’s response to different types of disruptions in the grid. Furthermore, digital manufacturing will be explored through additive manufacturing, which has the potential to revolutionize the design and manufacturing of some power transformer parts. This feature, integrated with the Digital Twin platform, will foster disruptive business models for these products. TRF4.0 joins complementary research competencies: EFACEC, as a manufacturer of power transformers, INESCTEC (computer science, industry and innovation) and INEGI (mechanical and industrial engineering) as Portuguese research institutes and the MIT’s Sociotechnical Systems Research Centre, enabling a comprehensive and multidisciplinary research programme. Although this sector has been a conservative innovator, the proposed research project will prepare the conventional power transformers for the complex challenges, trends, needs and opportunities of a fast-evolving Energy 4.0 sector.