Industry Days: World’s First Shake Table Test of Large Power Transformer
Join Idaho National Laboratory, W.E. Gundy & Associates Inc. (WEGAI) Research, UC San Diego, and project partners for industry engagement sessions centered on the full‑scale HVPT shake table test.
This work, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) Natural Hazards program and Office Office of Electricity (OE), focuses on developing and demonstrating a hardware solution to address seismic vulnerabilities and reduce outage risk from large power transformer failure.
This rare event offers a firsthand look at full‑scale seismic testing, advanced instrumentation, and emerging resilience technologies for large power transformers.
The program will showcase transformer seismic response, evaluate mitigation technologies, and highlight lessons learned that can help accelerate practical adoption across the electric grid.
Industry Day Opportunities
Bushing Decoupler Test
Live seismic testing with full data access. See the decoupler perform on a real, energizable 230kV transformer.
Base Isolation Test
Final isolation sequences, conclusion of all experimental runs, and site cleanup. Nation's first large-scale isolated transformer shake table test.
Participants will be shuttled to the testing site each morning, observe multiple live tests, and return by noon.
More details will be posted soon.
Questions or interested in participating? Contact Lisa.Wilmore@inl.gov.
Who Should Attend
Utilities, transformer owners, manufacturers, researchers, emergency preparedness stakeholders and standards leaders.
What You'll See
- Multi-directional, 6-degrees of freedom earthquake motions at full scale.
- Novel, low-cost, retrofittable bushing protection system.
- Base isolation evaluation and high-fidelity instrumentation.
- Discussion on standards, grid resilience, and deployment pathways.
What It Matters
- High voltage power transformers are critical and vulnerable substation assets.
- Bushing failure can drive extended restoration after major earthquakes.
- Test data will support resilient grid infrastructure in seismic regions.
INL Leads
Contributing Partners
