Design and Modelling of Thermal Energy Harvesting System for Power Transformer

Power transformers are the essential equipment which connect between generation side and transmission side in power system for shifting the generation voltage level to transmission level. The performance analysis of the transformer is essential to determine the losses and estimate the temperature rise in different parts of transformer. As power transformer works for twenty four hours in a day, the energy lost in this way is very large and this loss cannot be completely eliminated. Any method to collect the lost energy in thermal form will be a remarkable achievement and can be used for different applications for powering any of the device in generating station itself. As a primary step to analyze the performance of the transformer the electrical analysis of transformer is to be done and hot spots are to be identified. This paper mainly emphasis on the design and analysis of a power transformer using ANSYS MAXWELL software. The losses present, the flux paths and flux distribution at different instants are analyzed using the software. The hot spots of transformer are identified with the help of ANSYS WORKBENCH software. From the hot spots available the thermal energy can be extracted using thermal electric generation. The best method for this type of generation is by using thermo electrical generator (TEG). Thermo electric generation is entirely different from the conventional methods of converting thermal energy to electrical energy. Thermo electric generator converts the thermal energy directly to electric form. Moreover the energy conversion system is without any moving parts and it is a compact system. The extracted energy can be used for driving supply system for relay unit in the generating station itself.