ABB has won a prestigious Electrical Review Excellence award for its free-swimming TXplore inspection robot.

The cutting-edge robot was voted 2019 Power Product of the Year by a panel of judges set up by Electrical Review, the leading electrical industry publication in the UK.

The panel, led by Professor Ian F. Bitterlin, consulting engineer and visiting professor at University of Leeds, was impressed by TXplore’s capability to make transformer inspection a much safer activity, while boosting asset availability for power grid operators.

While there have been major advances in monitoring and diagnostic technology for power transformers, there are still times when an internal inspection is required. The traditional approach requires an outage lasting three or more days while the oil is drained to enable a technician to climb inside the unit.

Following a successful inspection, the transformer must then be refilled before re-starting operation.

In contrast, the new TXplore service uses a free-swimming submersible robot to capture images and video and transmit them via a wireless connection.

Because the oil stays in place throughout, there is no need to drain the oil or send a technician into the oily, sensitive and hazardous interior. Not only is this much safer, the transformer is usually back on line the same or next day.

“TXplore is just one element within ABB’s developing portfolio of products and services that provide our customers with sophisticated digital maintenance and asset management capabilities to deliver a complete real-time picture of how their critical assets are performing,” said Richard Holliday, ABB UK Market Manager for Transformers.

“It is the culmination of an intense development effort and is a powerful confirmation from the industry of the potential of TXplore to redefine transformer inspections.”