Marius Grisaru is an analytical chemist with a vast experience in transformer oil, condition monitoring, and dissolved gas analysis (DGA) in particular. He is also a domain expert on health management of power transformers. He has a vast experience in transformer fault analysis, diagnostic testing of transformer components, research and development. He is a distinguished member of various technical committees such as ASTM, CIGRE and IEC. He has published many high-quality papers in various international journals, magazines and conferences. He also conducts periodic lessons DGA of transformer oils on various educational platforms.

Let’s start the interview!

Q. Tell us about yourself

Q. What inspired you to join this sector?

Q. Can you elaborate why?

Marius: In most cases, wisdom of the crowd is a correct answer. In the power transformer industry, those terms are very close and intercorrelated. But are a few cases and different aspects for both terms.  It is correct that transformer reliability depends also on its maintenance. Of course, it depends on other aspects such as design, materials, loading regime, and others. Valuable and accurate measurements, followed by the best available diagnose are the first conditions for valuable maintenance policy. But for reliability is still not enough. Users must be aware that uncontrolled and unnecessary maintenance may cause the opposite effect of lower reliability. A good example of this is to exaggerate oil sampling, both manually or by the usage of low-quality online measurement devices.    

Q. What is the best piece of advice you would give to a junior professional to succeed in your sector?

Q. What is something nobody tells you, but you wish you knew earlier?

Marius: The wheel is already invented but I need to understand how and why it spins. Meaning that in our field is crucial to learn in deep every aspect and technology. Although is problematic advice I did not recommend electricians specialists to be involved in the chemical decision and of course vice-versa.  Same for software and commercial experts. Even in our days, information is much easy to achieve, experience is important as well.

Q. Can you recommend any books or media?

Marius: As I have continuously contributed to Transformers Magazine since the first volume on 8 April 2014 and presented the DGA course there, I strongly recommend reading it and participating in all the courses at Transformer Academy that are wisely tailored for all the participants in our industry. Surely, I also recommend listening to “Women in Power Engineering – live interview with Mrs. Chakraborty”.

CIGRE brochures and relevant IEEE and IEC standards are a must reading for all transformers users. The avalanche of papers published at IEEE may be problematic for practical readers because quite a few papers and few authors publish easily applicable methods.

I found very interesting and even relevant to professional life the best sellers’ books of Prof Yuval Harari. He describes very well the future of Artificial Intelligence and how it influences many life aspects. Of course, he doesn’t mention transformer diagnosis, but from his book, it is understandable how the AI will take control also in this field.

Without data you’re just another person with opinion.

W. Edward Deming


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