Donald A. Pomi — Bio
As the owner of Pomi’s Consulting Services, Don Pomi provides consulting to the Electric Power Substation and Transformer Industry.  Pomi’s Consulting Services is focused on support in the area of Substation Equipment Decommission (on and off site) and Power Transformer Supply, Operation, Maintenance and Repairs. Don presently supports JST Transformers, a leading Large Power Transformer Supplier and ABN Commodities, Ltd., a complete Substation Equipment Decommission Service Provider.
Don recently worked as a Field Service Manager for Siemens PT&D which was previously Vatech-Elin USA. Don provided a Customer, Service, Factory interface, for the Power Transformer Service section. Don had also worked for 38 years in the Electric Utility Industry, serving as a Substation Maintenance and Construction Electrician, Substation Maintenance Supervisor, Senior Transmission Field Specialist and as a Supervising Substation Technical Support Specialist for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). Don also served as the PG&E Transformer Procurement Team founder and Team leader for 8 years, prior to his retirement from PG&E.
His extensive background in Substation Maintenance and Construction has given Don the great opportunity to work with many groups on the leading edge of the industry, in the development of new, improved and competitive maintenance and design techniques, condition based maintenance practices and providing improved safe work practices for the field crews. The transformer team experiences have allowed Don the opportunity to see what the world market has to offer for leading edge transformer design, construction and service and what facilities are the world leaders in the power transformers industry.
The many years in the Utility Substation environment have provided Don with a vast amount of training and experience in understanding the employee, environmental and public hazards, associated with Substations and Facilities which contain high voltage electrical equipment.
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> Submit a Question to Don
Question: What can we do to reduce the exposure to transformer and circuit breaker bushing flashover from birds, squirrels and other animals?
Answer: There are products available from MidSun group www.midsungroup.com
which are designed to protect against rodent, bird and animal exposure to flashovers. Check out the MidSun web site for more specific details on this subject.
Question: What should I do if I think I have water in my transformer?
Answer: There are a few different charts to use as a reference for acceptable levels of moisture in oil for service aged electrical equipment. One IEE reference lists the maximum acceptable levels of moisture per voltage class as <69KV=35ppm, 69-255KV=25 ppm, >345KV= 20 ppm. If your units have values greater than those listed you should reduce the moisture in oil levels. You should also test the transformer insulation to see if the moisture content in the insulation is greater than acceptable, this should be <.5% for modern transformers.
The most effective method is to clear the unit, process the oil through filters and heaters to remove the moisture and then perform a hot oil dryout using a oil processing rig until the insulation moisture content is <.5%. This process will require the unit be out of service for several days or a few weeks to complete the dryout.
If clearing the unit and performing a hot oil dryout is not practical there are on line dry out filters available that can operate 24/7 and remove the moisture from the oil. This method will not dryout the insulation unless the unit can be loaded to heat up the insulation enough to force the moisture out of the insulation and into the oil. This method will take a few months and is not as effective as the oil processing equipment discussed above, but is an option to be considered. Check out www.velcon.com for more details. |
