Transformer Health by Industry | RONIN AI Use Cases by Seetalabs
Industries & use cases · CIGRE TB 761 · DGA

Different sector. Same question: which transformer first?

Steelworks, utilities, OEMs, testing labs, service companies and insurers all face the same weight: ageing transformers, thin expertise, one budget. RONIN AI turns the lab results you already have into a health index per asset, ranked by failure risk. No sensors, no integration project.

No sales calls · guided by AI

One method across every sector. Single asset or batch · 500 kVA to 800 MVA.

Everyone sells the sensor. RONIN sells the decision.
Trusted in the field

Arc furnace or transmission grid, a fault leaves the same signature in the oil. RONIN reads it before it becomes an outage.

SOCAR
Utility
EOS
Energy
Feralpi Group
Steel
Tamini
OEM
Power System
Service
CERN
Research
0
Industries served
One method, every sector
0
Countries
With validated assets
0+
Assets classified
In a single steel programme
0
Parameters that carry the signal
Distilled from 60+, same in every sector

Steel plant, electric arc furnace
01 · Energy-intensive industries

When the transformer stops, the production line stops.

Steel, paper, cement and process plants run furnace and substation transformers hard, and they age unevenly. The cost of a failure is not the transformer, it is the halted line behind it. Yet fleets are still managed on age: "old" is not the same as "at risk", and a mixed population with one budget rarely gets ranked by what actually threatens the next run.

The pain
01
Downtime is the real bill.

An unplanned outage runs $30k to $50k an hour, and a furnace transformer failure can idle a whole line for weeks.

02
Age is a poor proxy for risk.

Budgets follow the oldest nameplate, not the unit whose gases are actually climbing. The wrong transformer gets the attention.

03
No specialist on the floor.

Reading DGA correctly takes an expert most plants no longer keep on site, so lab reports stall in a folder.

How RONIN helps
Ranks the plant fleet worst-first

The lab results you already have become a health index per asset, so you know which transformer threatens the next production run, not which is oldest.

Separates old from at-risk

Reliability spend moves to the units that carry real risk, so testing and replacement budgets stop chasing age.

Catches a silent decline

Trend analysis across testing dates flags degradation before an unplanned stop, even when a single snapshot looks calm.

A verdict a non-specialist can act on

Plain band and recommended action tied to CIGRE TB 761, with the standard clause and Duval interpretation one click away.

Real deployment Steel · electric arc furnace group

Over 100 assets, one budget, no priorities.

The challenge: a steel group running electric arc furnaces (over 1.1 million tonnes a year, billets and bars) needed to know where the reliability budget should go across a large, mixed transformer fleet.

17.65%
of assets isolated as high-risk, flagged for replacement
16.67%
of assets optimised
100+
assets classified by risk and priority
-40%
transformer testing cost

Testing went where it mattered and planned outages fell, because the fleet was ranked by real condition, not by age.

Real deployment · trend caught it

A 76 MVA arc-furnace transformer from 1965, and a lab that read clean.

An erroneous lab result and a quiet single DGA snapshot said the unit was fine. The plant's real question was blunt: how many more heats before we have to pull it? RONIN reconstructed the health-index trend across testing dates and caught the drop that one clean sample had hidden, turning a sudden stop into a planned one.

Sudden failure avoided · planned intervention

Grid substation with power transformers
02 · Grid asset owners & utilities

Too many assets, too little time, and a replacement queue measured in years.

Ageing infrastructure and a shrinking expert workforce have made reactive maintenance untenable for utilities and distributors. A single generator step-up or grid transformer failure runs into the millions, and a new one can take two years to arrive. The asset manager who can rank the fleet by real failure risk, not nameplate age, is the one who spends the budget where it counts.

The pain
01
Reactive maintenance no longer scales.

Too many assets and too few specialists mean fleets are managed on assumptions, with diagnostic reports stalling in spreadsheets.

02
Long replacement lead times.

An unplanned failure means millions in loss and a multi-year wait for a new unit, so surprises are the most expensive outcome.

03
No standard way to prioritise.

Field observations and lab data live apart, and there is no shared method to turn them into a ranked, defensible worklist.

How RONIN helps
Ranks the whole fleet by risk

From the DGA and oil data you already collect, worst-first, so the budget conversation starts with the right asset.

Turns a surprise into a planned outage

A multi-year health-index trend flags the unit that needs a one-week planned outage now, before it fails on its own schedule.

A method a board will accept

Standard actions tied to CIGRE TB 761, so a non-specialist can act and a defensible number can go to finance.

No hardware, no IT rollout

Nothing to install on energised assets across a wide grid. A guided template in, a ranked fleet out.

Real deployment Power generation · utility

An obsolete GSU fleet, and no way to rank it.

The challenge: a generation utility with an ageing generator step-up fleet could not tell which units actually carried the risk, and kept spending on the wrong ones.

~$4M
saved on a single unit
4
ineffective maintenance actions found
2 yrs
of waiting for a new transformer avoided

A four-year health-index trend flagged the risk in time for a one-week planned outage, instead of an unplanned failure and a two-year replacement lead time.

Real deployment · a problem hidden for years

A paper mill GSU, and a signal buried under five years of "normal".

A generator step-up transformer at a paper mill (90 / 120 / 150 MVA) had been carrying a recurring ethylene signal for roughly five years, each isolated sample explained away as within range. The health-index trend surfaced what no single reading had: a slow, consistent decline. The unit was scheduled for planned decommissioning, and a catastrophic failure was avoided.

~5-year hidden problem caught · catastrophic failure avoided

Power transformer, manufacturing and assembly
03 · Transformer manufacturers & OEMs

You certify a unit at the factory, then lose sight of it in the field.

Warranty exposure and reputation ride on transformers you no longer see. A test-bay DGA is a snapshot, not a trajectory, and when a customer asks "is this reading normal?" you need a defensible, standards-based answer, not an ad-hoc opinion.

The pain
01
Blind after commissioning.

Once a unit leaves the factory, its condition history scatters across the customer's labs and spreadsheets.

02
Warranty and reputation risk.

A field failure is a claim and a headline, and you often learn of it only after the fact.

03
Inconsistent field verdicts.

Every site interprets DGA differently, so "normal" means something different from one customer to the next.

How RONIN helps
A health index at commissioning

Attach a standards-based baseline to a unit at handover, and re-run it from field lab data over its life.

One consistent verdict to hand customers

A CIGRE TB 761 result with its Duval interpretation, the same method everywhere, instead of site-by-site opinion.

Benchmark a design or a batch

Compare a batch across sites from the data your customers already gather, and see a design's behaviour in the field.

An after-sales service, no hardware to ship

Offer condition assessment as a service on top of the units you already sell, software only.

RONIN has been validated with OEM partners, and the method is the same one shown in the deployments on this page. We do not publish invented OEM figures. To see the health index run on your own units, start with the free guided demo.

Transformer testing in a laboratory
04 · Testing laboratories

You deliver accurate numbers. Your client wanted a decision.

Chemical and electrical results are your product, but the client receives a table, not a verdict. Interpretation is the value they actually want and the bottleneck you carry, and turning DGA, oil and electrical data into a prioritised answer takes a specialist's time you cannot scale.

The pain
01
A table is not an answer.

The client pays for numbers but is really asking "so what do I do?", and that gap is yours to fill.

02
Interpretation does not scale.

Every report that needs a specialist's read is a person-hour you cannot add to indefinitely.

03
Data lives in separate reports.

Chemical results, oil quality and electrical tests arrive apart, so a whole-asset view takes manual stitching.

How RONIN helps
Results into a ranked verdict

The chemical and electrical results you already produce become a health index and a fleet ranked by risk, in seconds.

A verdict beside the raw numbers

Hand clients a CIGRE TB 761 interpretation alongside the data, so the report answers the question they asked.

A guided template, no reformatting

Results flow in through a guided template, so the interpretation layer does not add lab overhead.

A paid layer under your own brand

Add interpretation as a white-label service on top of the testing you already sell.

Everyone sells the sensor and the sample. RONIN lets a lab sell the decision that comes after them.

Field maintenance on grid transformers
05 · Service & maintenance companies

You are measured on uptime you can only partly see.

Interventions get scheduled around calendars and manufacturer intervals, not actual condition. When a customer asks which unit to touch first, the honest answer is often a guess, and a missed early signal turns into an emergency callout and a blown SLA.

The pain
01
Calendar-driven, not condition-driven.

You visit on a schedule set by the interval, not by the asset that is actually degrading fastest.

02
Prioritising by instinct.

Asked which unit to fix first across a customer's fleet, you are often reading tea leaves, not a ranked list.

03
Emergencies break the margin.

A missed early signal becomes an out-of-hours callout, a penalty, and a customer who now doubts the contract.

How RONIN helps
Rank a customer's fleet worst-first

From the lab data they already have, so every visit starts with the unit that needs it most.

Plan by condition, not by calendar

Schedule interventions where the health index says risk is real, and defend the plan with a standard method.

Catch it before the callout

Trend analysis flags degradation before the next scheduled visit, turning emergencies back into planned work.

A new service tier to sell

Offer a data-driven inspection tier under your own brand, no hardware to stock and no IT rollout at the customer.

Service partners run the same method behind the deployments on this page. Rather than quote figures we cannot attribute to your fleet, we let you run the health index on real sample data in the free guided demo, then on a customer's data when you are ready.

Grid infrastructure and power assets
06 · Energy-sector insurers

Transformer failures are among the largest single claims in energy.

Underwriting leans on age and nameplate, weak proxies for real condition, and you cannot send a specialist to every insured asset. Loss prevention needs a defensible, standardised condition signal that works across a whole portfolio from the data operators already collect.

The pain
01
Age is a blunt underwriting proxy.

Pricing on nameplate and year misses the genuinely at-risk units and overcharges the merely old ones.

02
No eyes on every asset.

You cannot inspect a whole insured fleet in person, so condition is largely invisible at renewal.

03
Claims need evidence.

Loss prevention and disputes turn on whether a risk was rising, or was managed down, and that record is hard to assemble.

How RONIN helps
Score a portfolio without site visits

A standards-based health index across an insured fleet from existing DGA and oil data, no inspection needed.

Price on condition, not just age

Separate genuinely at-risk assets from merely old ones for underwriting and loss prevention.

One method across portfolios

A consistent CIGRE TB 761 methodology, so risk is comparable from one insured operator to the next.

Evidence for claims and renewals

A trend that shows a risk rising, or being managed down, as a defensible record at renewal or in a dispute.

A health index is a loss-prevention instrument: it turns "how old is it?" into "how likely is it to fail, and is that trend improving?"

Partner channel · for oil-treatment, testing and service companies

Resell the decision, under your own brand.

If you already run oil treatment, testing or field service, RONIN becomes a diagnostic service you sell to your own clients. You bring the samples and the relationship; RONIN turns the data into a health index and a ranked fleet your customer can act on. A software add-on, no hardware to stock.

01White-label the health index and reports for your clients.
02Add a data-driven service on top of the sampling you already do.
03No hardware, no IT rollout on your side or theirs.
Become a partner

Who reads it

The same result, read by the decider and the technician alike.

Whatever your sector, two people open the report. RONIN speaks to both. You do not need to be a DGA expert to know which transformer is at risk.

A The asset manager, overstretched and accountable

A plain, ranked view of the whole fleet, a defensible CIGRE TB 761 number for finance, and the risk framed against the cost of a single unplanned outage. The budget conversation starts with the right asset, not the oldest one.

B The technician, not necessarily a specialist

One colour, one band, one recommended action per asset, with the sub-scores, Duval interpretation and standard clause one click away for the engineer who wants to check the work. Simple on top, deep on click.


One scale, every sector

0 to 100, read as risk. Higher is better.

The same health-index scale reads a steel plant, a utility fleet and an insured portfolio. Colour always comes with a label and the value, so a report stays readable in greyscale.

Very Poor
0 to 30
Poor
30 to 50
Fair
50 to 70
Good
70 to 85
Very Good
85 to 100

07 · Mining & heavy haul

The transformer that keeps the mine moving, usually run past its nameplate.

Mines run transformers harder than almost anyone: mill drives (SAG and ball), hoisting, crushers, conveyors, ventilation and pumps, fed through VFDs and converters, under heavy cyclic duty and harmonics, in dust, vibration and remote sites. To hold production, a unit is often pushed above nameplate. When it trips, the whole line stops, and opening or decommissioning the transformer blind is slow and expensive.

Power transformers in a mining operation
The pain
01
Pushed above nameplate to hold production.

Extra cooling lets a 75 MVA unit pull closer to 90. It works, until the hot-spot and the paper insulation pay for it.

02
A trip stops the whole line.

A mill or hoist transformer down can idle extraction and processing for days. The transformer is not the bill, the stopped mine is.

03
Opening it blind is the worst option.

Exploratory untanking, inspection or decommissioning without knowing where to look burns cost and time, often for nothing.

04
Remote, no specialist on site.

Reading DGA correctly on a remote mine, with harmonics muddying the picture, is not something most sites keep an expert for.

How RONIN helps
Finds the fault in data you already have

The DGA and oil results already on file become a health index and a Duval reading, so a sustained-overload hot-spot is localised without opening anything.

Turns a trip into a targeted action

Instead of exploratory untanking or a blind decommission, a specific maintenance step, so budget goes where the fault actually is.

Catches the overload before the stop

Trend across testing dates flags the thermal signature climbing under heavy duty, well before the unit trips the line.

No specialist required on site

A plain band, a recommended action and the standard clause, so a remote team can act without a DGA expert on the floor.

Real request Mining · mill transformer above nameplate

A 75 MVA unit run like a 90, until it tripped.

The challenge: a mine kept a 75 MVA transformer above its nameplate rating, uprated cooling to pull close to 90 MVA, to keep a mill drive under heavy cyclic load. It tripped. The options on the table were exploratory tank opening or a blind decommission, both slow and expensive.

0
exploratory tank openings
0
decommissioning
DGA
fault localised from the data they already had

RONIN read the DGA and oil results they already had, localised the trip to a sustained-overload thermal hot-spot, and turned it into a targeted maintenance action. No tank opened in the dark, no cost spent guessing.

Self-serve · guided by AI

Whatever you run, start with the fleet you already have.

Register once. The guided demo runs your first health index on preloaded assets in minutes, then on your own DGA and oil data when you are ready. No sales calls.

No sales calls · guided by AI

Service company, OEM or lab? Write to me directly · Free account · guided demo · 500 kVA to 800 MVA

EU-hosted · GDPR Not used to train the model Isolated per customer