• » Reduce Electricity Waste
• » Monitor & Manage Power Use
• » Building a Conservation-Culture
• » LEED Buildings
• » CHPS Schools
• » Energy Savings Payback Calculator

• » Transformers as a Source of Electrical Savings
• » When to Change Out Transformers
• » Energy Service Company Partner Program
• » Green Start Initiative

ESCO Business Partner Program

Transformer Aging

Many transformers today are in the medium to high-risk category. While transformer failures are not common events, the risk of such failures obviously increase with age. Many of today’s buildings were built thirty years ago and house transformers that are reaching the end of their useful life.

The consequences of transformer failure are substantial, since all the power flows through transformers before it gets to equipment. The best case scenario of a transformer failure would be a power outage of 1/2 day or so, the worst case would be a fire with toxic smoke. Given the risk/reward and the opportunity to restart the aging clock and embed energy savings instead of cost, we believe that transformer replacement is strongly recommended.

Another factor to consider is the UL listing of older installed transformers. Many of the transformers currently in use could not be installed today and still maintain their UL Listing. This is because today's load profiles have a significant percentage of electronic load. Older transformers were not built to handle this type of load and consequently generate significant losses which are given off as heat exceeding the transformers rated capacity.