UK - A utility has selected MIDEL's biodegradable fluid to retrofil transformers in urban areas and increase fire safety.

Protecting high-rise residential buildings from fire is a critical engineering challenge. In densely populated urban areas worldwide, utilities, regulators, developers and public associations are actively looking at ways to avoid fire hazards.

One UK utility is leading the way in mitigating this risk, having taken the decisive action in 2019 to upgrade potentially flammable mineral oil-filled electrical transformers to further protect residents in over 100 high rise residential sites over a number of years.

Many of these high-risk units were located in embedded substations, often in the basements of the high rise apartments relying on them for electricity. The units range from 500 kVa to 1,000 kVa.

"This is an exemplary initiative to improve the safety of residents, implemented at a scale never seen before in this country. As well as saving considerable time in upgrading the assets, since retrofilling can be done in-situ, this also avoids an expensive capital replacement programme for new, fire safe transformers," said Gavin Allen, Managing Director at Grosvenor Oil Services.

The decision was made to replace the mineral oil in every high risk transformer with MIDEL's synthetic ester as a fire-safe, biodegradable alternative.

The ester has a high fire point of 316°C, exceeding that of mineral oil (170°C), making it safer to specify for transformers located in residential buildings, the manufacturer said in a press release.

MIDEL Service Partner, Grosvenor Oil Services, has been retrofilling with MIDEL fluids since 2015, upgrading the assets of many operators who have found themselves in a similar situation. The technicians at Grosvenor Oil have transformers at a number of sites, with many more to follow.

Source: T&D World