Impacts of urban heat island and climate changes in the operations and ageing rate of the transformers

The lack of atmospheric data in many urban areas across the world is a major limitation to urban climate research. This paper details the deployment of a low cost micrometeorology network across the city of Birmingham, UK, and the applications of data to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change and urban heat island in the energy industry. The network consists of 35 sites instrumented with iButtons to record air and transformer temperatures, plus a transect of six weather stations set up in a north to south orientation. The data has been initially analysed to investigate the average summer urban heat island and its correlations with transformers temperature between June and August 2010. The impacts of climate change on the transformers' operations have been analysed using UKCP09 medium emission scenarios for 2020, 2050 and 2080. Results in every site indicate a positive correlation between air and transformer temperature. These results point out areas in the city where the replacement and maintenance program of transformers will be focused.