Lab Services and Grid Reliability, Part 2: What the Lab Caught. Real Cases of Failure Avoidance
In our first post in this series, we explored why lab services are the backbone of a resilient grid. Now, we’ll bring those insights to life with real-world examples where diagnostic testing changed the outcome entirely.
These aren’t abstract benefits. They’re real cases where timely lab analysis helped utilities avoid catastrophic failures, reduce costs, and improve fleet performance.
Catching a Failure in Progress
A large U.S. utility submitted a transformer oil sample to Doble’s lab as part of routine dissolved gas analysis (DGA). The test results showed unusually high concentrations of fault gases, indicating a potential low-energy arcing or hot spot condition.
Doble flagged the result immediately and recommended resampling within days. The follow-up test confirmed what the trend suggested: acetylene levels were rising, pointing to high-energy arcing.
Armed with this information, the utility coordinated an emergency outage while the transformer was still in service. Once offline, further lab tests and field inspections confirmed that a lead inside the transformer was overheating and degrading insulation. Left unchecked, the issue could have escalated into a catastrophic failure and extended outage.
Outcome: Thanks to DGA monitoring and rapid lab diagnostics, the utility avoided an unplanned failure and reduced potential repair costs. The transformer was repaired and safely returned to service without downstream disruption.
The Power of Trending and Testing
Another utility was conducting routine condition monitoring on a high-value transformer. Over several months, DGA results showed a slow but steady increase in combustible gas concentrations. No single result triggered alarm thresholds, but the trend was unmistakable.
Instead of guessing, the utility submitted additional samples and partnered with Doble to correlate gas generation trends with operating conditions. The data suggested localized overheating rather than a system-wide fault.
With that insight, the utility scheduled a controlled outage and performed an internal inspection. Sure enough, loose connections and minor insulation degradation were found, enough to cause the gas buildup but caught before escalating into a major failure.
Outcome: Proactive trending and collaborative lab analysis enabled timely maintenance, preserved valuable equipment, and kept the grid reliable.
Lessons from the Field
These cases illustrate why lab services matter:
- Early warning saves time and money by turning symptoms into actionable diagnoses.
- Trending and interpretation matter: not every issue is obvious in a single test.
- Outage planning improves when maintenance is guided by lab-backed evidence.
- Reliability gains are tangible: from preventing catastrophic failures to extending asset life.
From Data to Decisions
Condition monitoring and lab analysis don’t just produce data, they produce decisions. Lab testing may happen behind the scenes, but its impact is clear in the field. The right insight, at the right time, can mean the difference between a catastrophic failure and a controlled, cost-effective repair.
In the next post in our Lab Services blog series, we’ll dive deeper into the diagnostic tools themselves, like DGA, furan testing, and forensic analysis, and explain why these tests carry so much weight in modern utility operations.
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- Doble’s Laboratory Services
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