COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
Digitalisation & Computational Intelligence Revolutionise Power Transformer Maintenance
By Associate Professor Ir . Ts Dr Wong Shen Yuong Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Xiamen University Malaysia
The Malaysian Government aspires to transform Malaysia into a digitally enabled and technology-driven high-income nation , and a regional leader in the digital economy . The fourth industrial revolution ( IR4.0 ) and digitalisation technology are the keys to thriving in the digital economy . IR4.0 is a phenomenon that has emerged from several technological initiatives , and it is normally used to represent an era of digitalisation in which data is collected , processed , and analysed automatically so that various components of a system can collaborate digitally . Among all the technological possibilities and tools , the four main drivers for digitalisation and intelligent networking of machines and processes are Big Data , Cloud , Internet of Things ( IoT ), and Computational Intelligence , as shown in Figure 1 . Big Data represents an enormous quantity and variety of collected data , that provides crucial insights when processed . Cloud technology inter-connects software and data with web-hosted servers , and it has the characteristics of higher data storage and calculation capacities . IoT is a combination of various information sensors , devices and technologies , providing realtime collection of any object or process that needs to be monitored , connected , and interacted . Whereas Computational Intelligence ( CI ) is always applied to processing and analysing big data , leading to better decision making .
Digitalisation ’ s Impact on the Power Sector and Economy
A revolution via digitalisation is currently underway in the electrical power system , which has remained largely unchanged for more than 100 years . Stunning advances in digitalisation can cut down electrical power system costs in at least five ways : i . e ., by reducing maintenance and operating costs ; improving power quality ; increasing power station and network efficiency ; diminishing the electrical power system ’ s downtime and unplanned outages ; and extending the operational lifetime of assets . Network failures are expensive , both for the utility and for the economy .
Figure 2 shows the overall worldwide savings from digital-enabled approaches that could be in the order of USD80 billion per year over the period 2016-2040 , or approximately 5 % of total annual power generation costs based on the enhanced global deployment of existing digital technologies to all power stations and network infrastructures [ 1 ].
The ultimate goal and potential benefit reaped from digitalisation in the electrical power system is likely to be the possibility of extending the operational lifetime of power station equipment , through better monitoring and improved maintenance . Given that lifetime of all the power equipment in the world could be extended by five years , then close to USD1.3 trillion of cumulative investment could be deferred
6 VOL 89 JANUARY-MARCH 2022