Dakota Supply Group - Index

Dakota Supply Group - dakotasupplygroup - Index

UTILITY
It seems as though everyone is talking about
the green movement, and the utility industry is
no different. Recently, the Department of
Energy (D.O.E.) published a final rule that
sets new energy-efficiency standards for
distribution transformers (for the uninitiated,
those are the cylinders or boxes that lower
the voltage of the electricity delivered to
homes and businesses).
Specifically, these new standards apply to
liquid-immersed, as well as medium-voltage,
dry-type distribution transformers. These
transformers are already extremely efficient, but
since they handle large amounts of electricity
and there are approximately 41 million of them
serving the nation’s electrical distribution
systems, small gains in efficiency can generate
large energy savings.
What do the new standards mean for
utilities? This new rule could boost the cost of
liquid-immersed transformers by as much as
12 percent and the cost of medium-voltage,
dry-type transformers by as much as 13
percent. However, these increases
in cost are accompanied by
significant decreases in
electrical losses – up to a 23
percent decrease in liquidimmersed
transformers
and up to a 26 percent
decrease in mediumvoltage,
dry-type transformers.
The net gain in
efficiency is significant.
28 www.dakotasupplygroup.com
DSG On Board With New D.O.E.
Efficiency Standards For Transformers
How does this affect the big picture? These
new D.O.E. standards will provide important
benefits to the nation. For example, the new rule
will save approximately 2.74 quads of energy over
29 years. That’s equal to all the energy used by
27 million American households in a single
year. More importantly, the new standards will
eliminate the need for approximately six new
400-megawatt, combined-cycle, gas turbine
power plants and consequently, reduce the
amount of greenhouse gas emissions – by an
amount equivalent to removing 80 percent of
light vehicles from U.S. roads for one year.
End-users will see benefits, too, in the form of
cost avoidance. Building new power plants can
be expensive, and those expenses are normally
passed on to users. With these new
standards, less new generation is required,
so utilities won’t have to pass on as much added
expense to their customers.
GE and DSG are already on board. GE is in
line to obtain the high efficiency metal for
the transformer cores and is ready
to produce the high-efficiency
transformers, while DSG is
ready to bring them to
utilities as soon as they are
available. To find out more
on these new D.O.E.
standards and highefficiency
transformers,
contact DSG’s Utility
Group at (800) 437-4702.