How Does Electricity Transformer?

by Niraj Jayaswal Content Writer

The hovering power lines above our houses, high up in the sky or have always been a curiosity among the layman. No doubt, children are strictly told to not even think of going close to them. This huge labyrinth of electricity has become common and necessary for our everyday lives. In a demographically and geographically huge country like India, you will find a massive number of package substation manufacturer in India because the requirement is so.

Now, the electricity is dangerous as we all know so how is it that it is safely running through the electrical circuits in our home? What is it that provides this transfer of electricity? Well, the answer is an electrical transformer. Composed of the laminated core, primary and secondary windings, insulting materials including transformer oil, oil conservator, breather, Buchholz relay, explosion vent, cooling tubes, and tap changers, an electrical transformer is primarily used in transferring the electricity basically the electric energy.

An electrical transformer works on the principle of electromagnetic induction. Basically, the current in the primary winding prompts electric current in the second winding which makes electricity transfer over the network, this helps in transfer of electricity. Even though the basic idea of transformer comes by creating the flow of electricity around a magnetic field, the setup of two windings namely, primary and secondary helps in a largely efficient transfer of electricity.

The leveling of voltage is also carried out by an electrical transformer. An expert from a renowned organization of power substation suppliers states that there are two types of the step up and step down transformers. As the name suggests, step up transformers and step down transformers are used to boost up the low voltage into high voltage and convert the high voltage into low voltage, respectively. In a step-up transformer, the secondary coil has more number of turns than those in the primary coil which results in a higher range of secondary voltage whilst the value of secondary current remains considerably low. On the other hand, a step-down transformer has more turns in the primary coil when compared to the number of turns in the secondary coil, this maintains a higher current in the secondary coil.

The composition of the windings and coils in an electricity transformer are often associated with susceptibility of faults. For instance, a particular substation in the Northern part of the country was experiencing regular failures, one of the top-rated substation manufacturers India investigated the failure, it was found out that the very load on the transformer was exceptionally high and the standard electricity transformer being used was not fit for that range of electrical energy.

Overheating of the electricity transformer is actually a common fault. Apart from that the breakage/ separation of the coils in the primary and secondary windings from the terminals of the transformer which are technically termed as open primary and open secondary are also detected which can be encountered in electricity transformers. An experienced working professional with expertise in the field of electrical substation transformer adds, winding-to-winding short can cause failure in the working of the electricity transformer when the insulation on the coil of wire in the primary or secondary windings separates which breaks through the insulating materials and the current flows from one winding to the other with no obstruction in between them.

Considering the requirements of an efficient transformer for varying conditions, many types of electricity transformer are available now. Let's explore the Autotransformers which are preferred in terms of cost-effectiveness and compact designing over the standard dual-winding transformers with their range of 110-117-120 and 220-230-240 voltage, Autotransformers are preferred when the ratio between the high voltage and low voltage is less than two. In regard to cost-effectiveness, three phase transformers are also recommended.