US POWER TRANSFORMER MARKET

KEY FINDINGS

• National Grid has sought approval for a new $15 million electrical substation in Bethlehem, New York.
• Norwegian power giant Equinor and BP win 2.49GW offshore wind contracts in US auction.
• Consumers Energy’s $260 million of 150MW capacity wind farm begins operations in Michigan, U.S.
• Leeward Renewable Energy contracts GE for New Mexico wind projects.
• In 2019, to improve reliability in the region, National Grid decided to construct a new substation in the Town of Harmony to provide load relief to the existing system.
• Integration of renewable energy networks to balance the rise in electricity demand during peak hours and strict energy efficiency accord are the major factors driving the growth of US transformers market.
• Increasing energy demand in the country and upgrading of outdated transmission and distribution systems is likely to drive the country’s transformer market.

INTRODUCTION

Power transformers are used in high voltage transmission networks i.e. 400 KV, 200 KV, 110 KV, 66 KV, 33 KV. Since power can’t be transferred at high voltage to the customers, so the power is stepped down using step-down power transformer.

They are mainly rated above 200 MVA. These transformers have appx. 100% efficiency and mainly installed at generating station and transmission substations. They are relatively bigger in size as compared to distribution transformers.

Recent increase in the use of renewable energy such as solar, wind etc. have increased the demand of distribution transformer. This will be the key driver for the European transformer market.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Market segmentation for US power transformer is done on the basis of rating of transformers (small, medium, large), cooling used in the transformer (air-cooled, oil-cooled) and by geography.

1. ON THE BASIS OF RATING OF TRANSFORMERS

• SMALL

Power transformers whose rating is less than 60 MVA falls under this category.

• MEDIUM

Power transformers with rating between 61 MVA TO 600 MVA falls under medium category.

• LARGE

Power transformers with rating above 600 MVA falls under large power transformer category.

*Here VA stands for Volt Ampere, which represents power.

2. ON THE BASIS OF COOLING USED IN TRANSFORMERS

• AIR COOLED TRANSFORMERS

In this type of transformers, winding sand core are immersed in oil, in a tank with radiators. Here oil act as both insulator and cooling agent. Common application of these type of transformer are-

• Step-up transformer in power plants
• Step-down transformers in substations (EHV/EHV, EHV/HV, HV/MV)

Oil filled sealed transformers are used in distribution networks (MV/LV) and in installation up to 52 kV having power rating up to 2.5 MVA. Few manufacturers have built this kind of transformers for power rating up to 30 MVA.

• OIL COOLED TRANSFORMERS

These falls under the category of dry type transformers, where air is used as a cooling agent instead of oil. This type of transformers is most suitable where distribution of energy requires absolute safety. These requires less maintenance and are safer as compared to oil type transformers. Possess very less space and are simple in design with onsite replacement of winding s feasibility.

Dry type transformers are used in-

• Multistorey building
• Hotels
• Hospitals and clinics
• Airports
• Places where fire safety is a great concern

Air cooled transformer is in great demand due to its low fire hazard probability as compared to oil cooled transformers.

3. BY GEOGRAPHY

1. North America
2. Latin America

Due to constant increase in energy demand and ambitious reduction of greenhouse gases, US is witnessing a large installation of power plants with renewable energy sources. This will require a large number of distribution and power transformer for the transmission of electricity.

MAJOR PLAYERS

• Siemens AG
• General Electric
• Schneider Electric
• ABB Ltd
• Emerson Electric