“We are paving the way toward an all-electric society”

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The energy technology sector is going through exciting times, and 100 years after the invention of the high-speed resistor-type tap-changer, we are at a systemic turning point. How would you summarize the current challenges?

Dr. Manuel Sojer: The indus­try hasn’t been this excit­ing in the last 100 years, and we are in a sit­u­a­tion sim­i­lar to that of 1926. The grids must be expand­ed to ensure greater sta­bil­i­ty, but for the tran­si­tion to an all-elec­tric soci­ety to suc­ceed, we need inno­v­a­tive solu­tions, the smart use of data, and close col­lab­o­ra­tion with­in the ecosys­tem – both in tech­nol­o­gy and in process logis­tics.

Jür­gen Ach: At the same time, the exist­ing elec­tri­cal infra­struc­ture is aging. In addi­tion to the nec­es­sary grid expan­sion, the indus­try is under­go­ing a com­pre­hen­sive renew­al cycle of its tech­ni­cal infra­struc­ture for the first time. Exist­ing facil­i­ties must be grad­u­al­ly replaced where nec­es­sary or intel­li­gent­ly main­tained and kept in use for as long as pos­si­ble. At the same time, the indus­try is fac­ing a pro­found gen­er­a­tional shift.

How do you intend to support your customers in light of these dynamics?

Dr. Sojer: Essen­tial­ly, there are two key points. First, com­pli­ance with grid codes, i.e. grid con­nec­tion require­ments. Whether you want to con­nect pow­er gen­er­a­tors such as PV parks or wind tur­bines, or large con­sumers such as data cen­ters or elec­trolyz­ers to the grid, you must always meet the grid con­nec­tion require­ments. And these are becom­ing increas­ing­ly com­plex because the grids them­selves are also becom­ing more com­plex. We sup­port our cus­tomers in meet­ing these require­ments, for exam­ple, with reac­tive pow­er com­pen­sa­tion, volt­age sta­bi­liza­tion, and fil­ters.

Ach: The sec­ond point con­cerns the oper­a­tion of our cus­tomers’ equip­ment which must be man­aged effi­cient­ly and safe­ly through­out its entire life­cy­cle. Against the back­drop of rapid­ly expand­ing yet aging infra­struc­ture and a shrink­ing pool of expe­ri­ence, oper­a­tional deci­sions must there­fore be increas­ing­ly sys­tem­atized and ground­ed on a robust foun­da­tion. This is pre­cise­ly where we come in: We pro­vide trans­paren­cy regard­ing the con­di­tion of equip­ment and make rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion for con­tin­ued oper­a­tion, main­te­nance, or replace­ment avail­able in a struc­tured man­ner.

Let’s stick with primary technology for now. Can we expect any real innovations in this area in the future?

Dr. Sojer: Absolute­ly. Trans­form­ers and tap chang­ers will con­tin­ue to play a cen­tral role in the ener­gy sup­ply in the future. They are the best avail­able tech­nol­o­gy for solv­ing prob­lems of sta­t­ic volt­age main­te­nance. As ener­gy sys­tems are trans­formed, prob­lems are con­stant­ly increas­ing, and at the same time, this cre­ates oppor­tu­ni­ties for inno­va­tion.

Let me give you an exam­ple: With the ener­gy tran­si­tion and decen­tral­ized feed-in, new volt­age prob­lems have arisen in dis­tri­b­u­tion net­works. We are solv­ing these today with our tap chang­er for local dis­tri­b­u­tion trans­form­ers, the ECOTAP^® VPD^®. And of course, the new VACUTAP^® VI also comes into play here, enabling the cre­ation of more sus­tain­able trans­form­ers with a small­er foot­print. In addi­tion, the VACUTAP^® VI is eas­i­er for trans­former man­u­fac­tur­ers to install. We there­fore make trans­form­ers smarter to con­trol and enable broad­er fields of appli­ca­tion, such as for data cen­ters, wind farms, or elec­trolyz­ers.

By always think­ing one step ahead regard­ing our tap chang­ers and their appli­ca­tions, we help to effi­cient­ly imple­ment the ener­gy tran­si­tion. When it comes to grid con­nec­tion con­di­tions in mod­ern grids, our pow­er qual­i­ty solu­tions also come into play. In many places, the require­ments for reac­tive pow­er or har­mon­ics can­not be met with­out pow­er elec­tron­ics solu­tions. Third­ly, inno­va­tions arise from the com­bi­na­tion of tap chang­ers and pow­er elec­tron­ics sys­tems. Here, progress lies in the inter­ac­tion of indi­vid­ual com­po­nents with­in a sys­tem, which can, for exam­ple, sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase the yield of a PV park.

This means you’re dealing with an increasing number of players in the energy market. How is Reinhausen prepared for this?

Dr. Sojer: Inno­va­tion can only arise through dia­logue with cus­tomers. Many of our inno­va­tions have emerged from close col­lab­o­ra­tion with grid oper­a­tors and trans­former man­u­fac­tur­ers. Today, this dia­logue is more impor­tant than ever, because the ener­gy sec­tor has become sig­nif­i­cant­ly more com­plex. From equip­ment man­u­fac­tur­ers and grid oper­a­tors to project devel­op­ers, plant oper­a­tors, con­sumers, and investors, we must main­tain a dia­logue with all stake­hold­ers. After all, our tech­nol­o­gy enables data cen­ters to oper­ate with fail-safe reli­a­bil­i­ty and makes elec­trolyz­ers or wind farms more effi­cient – and thus more prof­itable.

Mr. Ach, what is the situation in the area of asset management? Where do your customers feel the most pressure in that regard?

Ach: The great­est pres­sure in asset man­age­ment cur­rent­ly stems from the ques­tion of how oper­a­tors are deal­ing with grow­ing uncer­tain­ty. Many of our cus­tomers are fac­ing con­crete ques­tions such as: Which assets are crit­i­cal? Where do risks arise? Which facil­i­ties can I con­tin­ue to oper­ate, and where do I need to invest? Espe­cial­ly with aging fleets and lim­it­ed resources, pri­or­i­ti­za­tion becomes a cen­tral chal­lenge. The real pain point here is less the indi­vid­ual asset and more the lack of an overview of the fleet and its con­di­tion. This is pre­cise­ly where a reli­able, trans­par­ent basis for deci­sion mak­ing is often miss­ing.

How do you help your customers achieve the necessary transparency regarding the condition of their systems?

Ach: The first step is inte­grat­ing the trans­former into a dig­i­tal sys­tem envi­ron­ment. With our com­bi­na­tion of mechan­i­cal acces­sories, smart sen­sors, field devices, and sec­ondary tech­nol­o­gy, we inte­grate the equip­ment into a net­worked sys­tem. ETOS^®, our Embed­ded Trans­former Oper­at­ing Sys­tem, acts as a cen­tral sys­tem direct­ly on the trans­former. It col­lects con­di­tion, oper­a­tional, and envi­ron­men­tal data, con­sol­i­dates it, and makes it avail­able and ana­lyz­able local­ly. This makes a com­plex piece of equip­ment sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly acces­si­ble: data is not only col­lect­ed but also trans­lat­ed into an oper­a­tional con­text — serv­ing as the basis for informed oper­a­tional deci­sions.

And once I have this transparency, how can I use it to make better decisions in asset management?

Ach: Build­ing on this, we eval­u­ate the exist­ing fleet togeth­er with our cus­tomers. As part of a struc­tured assess­ment, we ana­lyze the cur­rent con­di­tion, risks, and areas for action. We then sup­port our cus­tomers in sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly devel­op­ing their asset man­age­ment fur­ther, from pri­or­i­tiz­ing spe­cif­ic mea­sures through ques­tions of con­tin­ued oper­a­tion or replace­ment to medi­um- and long-term bud­get and invest­ment plan­ning. Depend­ing on the need, this takes the form of per­son­al con­sult­ing, tar­get­ed project sup­port, or the step-by-step devel­op­ment of an end-to- end process, for exam­ple based on our asset per­for­mance man­age­ment solu­tion TESSA^®.

In your view, what is the key difference in approach if one wants to implement asset management effectively today?

Ach: Many asset per­for­mance man­age­ment approach­es today are devel­oped from a soft­ware or IT per­spec­tive. Our approach is dif­fer­ent: We draw on our tech­ni­cal and oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence with trans­form­ers and sub­sta­tions. This enables us to think about asset man­age­ment ver­ti­cal­ly – from mechan­i­cal com­po­nents and sen­sors through field devices and algo­rithms to con­trol and automa­tion func­tions, as well as sup­port for the asset man­age­ment process. At the same time, this approach is delib­er­ate­ly mod­u­lar and open end­ed. Sys­tems can be inte­grat­ed with­out pro­pri­etary lim­i­ta­tions and expand­ed step by step. In-depth domain knowl­edge is cru­cial here: it is the foun­da­tion for ensur­ing that dig­i­tal solu­tions are actu­al­ly usable and effec­tive in oper­a­tion.

How does this approach translate into tangible benefits for your customers in practice?

Ach: On request, we equip every tap chang­er with ETOS^® as stan­dard. This turns trans­form­ers into com­mu­ni­ca­tion-capa­ble, ana­lyz­able assets of mod­ern ener­gy infra­struc­tures. ETOS^® func­tions as an intel­li­gent edge sys­tem that aggre­gates and pre-process­es data, mak­ing it usable for asset man­age­ment and con­trol sys­tems. Thanks to its stan­dard­ized inter­faces and mod­u­lar archi­tec­ture, cus­tomers can get start­ed grad­u­al­ly and fur­ther devel­op their sys­tems in line with their require­ments. On this basis, the infor­ma­tion gath­ered can be inte­grat­ed into high­er-lev­el asset man­age­ment process­es – from the eval­u­a­tion of indi­vid­ual assets to the sys­tem­at­ic con­trol of entire fleets. In addi­tion to the tech­nol­o­gy, we also sup­port our cus­tomers with analy­sis, project imple­men­ta­tion, and the estab­lish­ment of cor­re­spond­ing process­es. This cre­ates a com­pre­hen­sive approach – from intel­li­gent assets to well-found­ed deci­sion sup­port in asset man­age­ment.

Where does the future potential for innovation lie here?

Dr. Sojer: Most mar­ket par­tic­i­pants have an enor­mous wealth of data at their dis­pos­al. Pow­er trans­form­ers, for exam­ple, have been in oper­a­tion for many decades. Over this time, oper­a­tors have accu­mu­lat­ed vast amounts of data on paper or in Excel spread­sheets. We need to find ways to turn this infor­ma­tion into action­able deci­sions – ide­al­ly start­ing tomor­row – and to process it for appli­ca­tions and improved process­es. Data and smart algo­rithms are the key to this.

Ach: In the field of sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy, we see a high lev­el of tech­no­log­i­cal matu­ri­ty. New sen­sors and detailed improve­ments are con­stant­ly being added, mak­ing impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions. Today, how­ev­er, the cen­tral poten­tial for inno­va­tion lies less in indi­vid­ual sen­sor com­po­nents than in the intel­li­gent inte­gra­tion of func­tions and data across the board. Cru­cial to this are robust algo­rithms based on sol­id, con­sis­tent data, as well as the devel­op­ment of sim­pli­fied, semi-auto­mat­ed process­es.

The goal is always to make the increas­ing sys­tem com­plex­i­ty man­age­able for our cus­tomers – not to increase it fur­ther. This requires a dis­trib­uted sys­tem of mod­u­lar units in the field. Togeth­er, these pro­vide a con­sis­tent over­all pic­ture and, at the same time, con­crete, sta­tus-relat­ed infor­ma­tion on each indi­vid­ual trans­former. Stan­dard­ized, easy-to-use inter­faces are nec­es­sary here that work just as well in the con­trol cen­ter as they do for ser­vice per­son­nel in the field, and make knowl­edge avail­able across the entire orga­ni­za­tion – and that is pre­cise­ly what dri­ves sus­tain­able inno­va­tion.

Where do you see Reinhausen in 10 years?

Dr. Sojer: We will then be in the final stages of the jour­ney toward cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty. Expe­ri­ence shows that this phase is the most chal­leng­ing, as tech­ni­cal, reg­u­la­to­ry, and oper­a­tional require­ments increas­ing­ly over­lap. In this envi­ron­ment, we clear­ly see Rein­hausen play­ing a dual role. We see our­selves as a man­u­fac­tur­er of inno­v­a­tive, high­ly reli­able actu­a­tors – still tap chang­ers, but also oth­er key com­po­nents – that make a con­crete con­tri­bu­tion to mas­ter­ing the phys­i­cal chal­lenges of this phase.

Ach: On the oth­er hand, we see our­selves as an inte­grat­ed part­ner that sup­ports its cus­tomers in their process­es beyond just prod­ucts – with sys­tems, data-based func­tions, and tar­get­ed ser­vices that help reduce com­plex­i­ty and enable con­fi­dent deci­sions. The more inter­con­nect­ed, dig­i­tal, and data dri­ven ener­gy sys­tems become, the less impor­tant indi­vid­ual prod­ucts become – and the more impor­tant the inter­play of tech­nol­o­gy, data, and process­es. We see Rein­hausen posi­tioned with­in this inter­play even ten years from now.

And when we look back in 100 years, what contribution should Reinhausen have made to the electrification of the world?

Dr. Sojer: 100 years ago, Dr. Jansen and the Scheubeck broth­ers made it pos­si­ble for pow­er grids to be built in the first place as we know them today. We want to car­ry this lega­cy for­ward into the all alec­tric soci­ety by using our prod­ucts and solu­tions to pio­neer a sus­tain­able ener­gy sup­ply that is char­ac­ter­ized by both high sup­ply reli­a­bil­i­ty and cost-effec­tive­ness.