Two Quanta Services operating companies—Pennsylvania Transformer Technology and Mercer Technical Services—teamed up to deliver and install a major power transformer at a new Texas data center site. This is the last of four identical high-voltage transformers Pennsylvania Transformer Technology built for the project, and from the factory floor to the rails to final set on the pad, it took precision, coordination, and a lot of heavy lifting. "This project presented many challenges, but the support from Mercer and my team at PTT made another successful project completion possible," said William Butler, PTT project manager and sales engineer.
Moving four 370,000-plus-pound transformers about 1,375 miles from PTT's Canonsburg, Pennsylvania plant to Texas meant crossing three separate railroads before the final road move. With the site still under construction, tight conditions left no straight path to the pad, ruling out a simple parallel set.
The team paired long-haul rail with specialized heavy-haul rigging. The unit moved by rail into Texas — tracked end to end by a rail expeditor — then transloaded to over-the-road transport. Because restricted access let the self-propelled modular transport (SPMT) approach only perpendicular to the foundation, a turntable rotated the unit 90 degrees; counterweights offset the shipping center of gravity, and a jack-and-slide system made the final set in one controlled move.
Each transformer was successfully positioned and set on its designated foundation, completing the fourth and final unit of the project. From engineering and manufacturing to rail transport, transloading, heavy-haul logistics and final installation, every phase was completed according to plan through close coordination between Pennsylvania Transformer Technology and Mercer Technical Services. The completed installation adds critical power capacity to support the reliable operation of the new Texas data center
Purpose-built for the continuous, high-density loads of modern data centers: three-phase, two-winding, oil-immersed units built and tested to the latest IEEE C57 standards.
Outdoor, continuous-duty, oil-immersed step-down units in a Dyn1 configuration with a solidly grounded LV neutral. Across the fleet, ratings span roughly 60–600 MVA and 69–345 kV high side, stepping down to a 34.5 kV bus. Windings run in ASTM D3487 mineral oil, with impedance set at 8.5–9.5%.
An automatic load tap changer (LTC) — a Reinhausen RMV-II vacuum unit on a Beckwith 2001D controller — holds bus voltage steady with ±10% regulation across 32 steps and a 500,000-operation rating. A five-position de-energized tap changer (DETC) adds ±5% on the HV winding at commissioning.
A staged ONAN/ONAF1/ONAF2 system raises capacity as fans engage, holding top-oil and winding rise to 65°C and hot-spot rise to 80°C. Radiators are individually valved, so any one can be serviced without removing the unit from service.
The core uses grain-oriented silicon-steel laminations (1.87 T max flux at 110% voltage) for low loss; windings are electrolytic copper insulated with thermally upgraded (Dennison) paper rated to a 110°C hot-spot. Guaranteed no-load and load losses are independently verified, with penalties for exceeding quoted values.
Low-loss, grain-oriented silicon-steel cores & thermally upgraded copper windings deliver efficient, reliable performance, with independently verified no-load & load losses.
A substation transformer that steps high transmission voltage down to a distribution voltage a data center can use — here, 138 kV to a 34.5 kV bus, rated in the hundreds of MVA.
It adjusts the turns ratio while energized to hold output voltage steady as load changes; these units use a Reinhausen RMV-II vacuum LTC with ±10% regulation across 32 steps.
Transforming the Grid: High-Voltage Power Solutions from 40 MVA to 345 kV
PROJECT: The 345kV high-voltage power transformer from PTT delivers exceptional reliability and performance, offering up to 150 MVA of capacity, copper windings, dual-stage forced-air cooling, and over 99.6% efficiency for heavy-duty substation and transmission applications.
PROJECT: The 138kV high-voltage power transformer from PTT provides elite-tier utility performance — offering 105/140/175 MVA capacity, dual-stage ONAN/ONAF/ONAF cooling, ±10% voltage regulation via 16 tap steps, and up to 99.77% efficiency — all assembled in the USA to ISO 9001 and ANSI/IEEE standards.
PROJECT: The 69kV 40 MVA, three-phase power transformer from PTT pairs precision copper-wound engineering with advanced ONAN/ONAF/ONAF cooling, automatic load tap changing and full ANSI/IEEE compliance—delivering robust, efficient and dependable power for demanding substation environments.
We utilize third party tracking technologies (described in the "Preferences" link) that collects your data (e.g., device, site activity, & IP address) when you interact with our website and further shares this data with third party social media, analytics, and/or marketing providers for user personalization, data analytics, and marketing purposes (including targeted ads). By accessing our website and clicking the "Accept All" button or making your preference selections using the Preferences link, you CONSENT to the above activities as further described in our Privacy Policy. Exercising your consent options will not prevent you from purchasing our products or services.
Manage your cookie preferences below:
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Google reCAPTCHA helps protect websites from spam and abuse by verifying user interactions through challenges.
Google Tag Manager simplifies the management of marketing tags on your website without code changes.
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
Service URL: policies.google.com (opens in a new window)
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
Facebook Pixel is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
Service URL: www.facebook.com (opens in a new window)
