India will be amongst the countries that will lead the digital transformer portfolio of Siemens, a company official told T&D India. Siemens, it may be recalled, recently launched the world’s first comprehensive digital transformer portfolio at Hannover Messe, Germany. The new Sensformer™ merges physics and information and ensures digital intelligence for transformers regardless of their product class, size and rating.
Siemens will shift its complete transformer portfolio to Sensformer™ starting June 2018. The transition to Senseformers will be across the entire transformer portfolio, and will start with power transformers. The Siemens power transformer plant at Kalwa in Maharashtra will be amongst the first globally to deliver Sensformers, the Siemens official told T&D India. The Kalwa power transformer factory of Siemens was inaugurated in December 2007 and specializes in extra high-voltage power transformers.
- All Siemens transformers will be “Sensformers” effective June 2018
- The transition will start with power transformers and move to all categories
- The Kalwa plant of Siemens will be among the earliest ones globally to roll out Sensformers
- Sensformers will be equipped with IoT gateway and cyber security features
Senseformers will be completely new units and it would not be possible to retrofit “digital features” on existing transformers, the Siemens official clarified.
As transformers are placed at critical nodes of the power grid, they are perfect sensors for grid conditions containing full information on energy flow. “The current challenge of the transformer industry is to enable connectivity for all assets. With the launch of Sensformer™ we combine function and information in one product with the focus on simplicity and smart data”, says Beatrix Natter, CEO Transformers at Siemens Energy Management. “Like the smart phone has replaced the cell phone, all transformers will be Sensformer™ in the near future,” Natter adds.
Sensformer™ provides the easy step-in to digitalization for all customers, turning the “voltage regulators” into an info-hub. The data will allow for conclusions on the status of the assets as well as the power grid and thus allow for enhanced flexibility and optimized operation of the entire grid. While currently available solutions are imposing additional hurdles in terms of cost and complexity to customers, Sensformer™ will already be equipped per default with easy-to-use digital intelligence. The basic functionalities of Sensformer™ (incl. hardware, software and cloud access) are kept simple for ease of use. The Sensformer™ also holds the advantage of offering highest stability by limiting physical measurements to the bare minimum as well as avoiding unnecessary IT equipment at site, the release said.
Features
All Sensformers will be equipped with an IoT gateway to provide direct real-time measurements of oil level, top oil temperature, LV winding current and GPS location. MindSphere is Siemens’ cloud-based, open Internet of Things (IoT) platform that connects physical assets to the digital world, and enables powerful applications and digital services.
Siemens has also empowered Senseformers with best-in-class cyber security features complying to all the relevant standards today. With more than one million devices already connected to MindSphere, Siemens has first-hand experience with cybersecurity challenges in the age of the Industrial Internet of Things.
