Suzhou Electric Power Company distributes almost 80.72 billion kWh every year to the Suzhou area in Jiangsu Province, China. During the summer, the electricity consumption of Suzhou approaches its yearly peak, and the greatest power load exceeds 12 million kW per day. Meanwhile, the temperature is usually above 30°C, average humidity is 70% and it rains frequently. During such weather, the silica gel placed in the transformer's breather becomes damp and this endangers the transformer. This is the reason that frequent replacement of the silica gel is essential.
Suzhou is therefore testing MTraB, Messko’s maintenance-free dehydrating breather, to save the time spent replacing silica gel during the peak season. A sensor set in MTraB continuously monitors humidity. When the humidity violates the criteria, the sensor immediately starts a heater to dry the silica gel. The entire process requires no human labor. Silica gel does not need to be replaced either. And there is no danger of service technicians coming in contact with the environmentally harmful carcinogen silica gel contained in a typical conventional breather.
