Carbon Footprint of Transformer and the Potential for Reduction of CO2 Emissions

The electric power system is one of the major sources of CO₂ emission and 4 % of it is from the transformers in the system. The ever-increasing demand of electric power needs addition of new transformers every year, which further increases the emissions. In order to estimate the lifetime impact of the emissions from the transformers for reducing the emission, the carbon footprint of 4 different designs of transformers are calculated. The baseline design (design 1) is the one existing prior to the EU Directive 548/2014. This is compared with other designs of reduced losses including the one using the best available technology today (Design 4). It is estimated that the potential for reduction of CO₂ emission is 44 % of the best design as adopted. The reduction of emission in the year 2045, would be 105 million tons in addition to the benefits of energy saving if all the new additions to the power system are only low loss (Design 4) transformers.