Advantages for Indonesia to Process Coconut Oil as Power Transformer Insulation and its Cooling System

By 2017, the capacity of the Indonesian power system is 56,333.08 MW. A conventional power transformer is an oil-filled transformer, which is mineral oil. It uses mineral oil as insulation and cooling media, which is toxic and nonenvironmentally friendly. Reducing the usage of mineral oil has a lot of advantages and a great deal. In the other hand, Indonesia and Philippines were the two top coconut suppliers in the entire world in 2011-2015. With this capability, Indonesia should utilize conventional coconut oil to become insulation media, especially for power transformer. An alternative insulation media must have similar dielectric characteristics at least as mineral oil. Conventional mineral oil has high dielectric strength, good heat conductivity, a low specific gravity, a low viscosity, a low pour point, a high flash point, safe for the transformer material, and stable. On the other side, coconut oil has dielectric characteristics too. Its characteristic has some similar standard with mineral oil for power transformer. In some researches, half processed of coconut oil has been tested based on the standard. The researchers obtained five parameters. Good result for flashpoint, viscosity at 40°C, and neutralization value of total acidity but not good for breakdown voltage and pour point. It because of the tested coconut oil is commercially available or unrefined coconut oil and researchers needs more test for other parameters. In order to fulfil the standard, Indonesia should process crude coconut oil domestically as insulating media. It will provide a job for seekers, the world's alternative for liquid insulation media, and prosper the coconut gardener. Of course, coconut oil is more environmentally friendly than mineral oil.