Transformer Enclosure

[ElectricNewbie84]

Hi,

I just joined this forum to seek knowledge from great experience Electrical mentors. I'm new to the electrical world and would like to understand real life electrical applications better.

I noticed, as I was driving home one day, these pad mounted transformed stationed on concrete pads. If there happens to be a flash flood or major storm (10 year storm) that causes a great amount of water to be high enough that goes above the 6" concrete pad, and into the transformer. If there's enough water that seeps into the transformer enclosure, what are the chances that it eventually causes a short circuit? Will the water be able to dissipate through the conduits and/or through the base of the transformer vault?

 

[kwired]

Hi,

I just joined this forum to seek knowledge from great experience Electrical mentors. I'm new to the electrical world and would like to understand real life electrical applications better.

I noticed, as I was driving home one day, these pad mounted transformed stationed on concrete pads. If there happens to be a flash flood or major storm (10 year storm) that causes a great amount of water to be high enough that goes above the 6" concrete pad, and into the transformer. If there's enough water that seeps into the transformer enclosure, what are the chances that it eventually causes a short circuit? Will the water be able to dissipate through the conduits and/or through the base of the transformer vault?

You have to remember with most of the ones you are probably talking about there is two enclosures. The windings are usually withing a tank filled with oil which is used both as insulation as well as a media for transfering heat to the outer surface for dissipation. So the windings are generally fairly well protected other than pressure relief or other ventilation that may be there. The other enclosure is the part containing the incoming and outgoing conductors and termination points. These items will be subjected to possible submersion damage in most cases. The water is generally not going to be conductive enough for high currents on below 600 secondary circuits, but very well could carry enough current to be a problem for over 600 volt primary circuits. Flash flooding there is not enough time, but I have seen longer term flooding events where POCO sees the problem coming and removes power before it is effected for safetys sake. They often will not reuse the transformer if it had high water inside without some thorough testing first. Larger transformers may be tested in place, smaller ones are often replaced and the old one is sent off for testing/reconditioning.