“Together with our customers, we are regulating the energy transition.”

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Dr. Maier-Scheubeck, Mr. Michalka, Mr. Breuer, Reinhausen will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the high-speed resistor-type tap-changer in 2026. How do you personally view this anniversary?

Scheubeck: For me, this anniver­sary rep­re­sents a leap forward–from prod­uct to solu­tion. Since its inven­tion, the high-speed resis­tor-type tap-chang­er has become estab­lished at all volt­age lev­els and has become a guar­an­tee of sup­ply secu­ri­ty. Dur­ing this time, elec­tric­i­ty has become a fac­tor in prosperity–a devel­op­ment that our com­pa­ny has played a key role in shap­ing. We want to raise aware­ness of this even more in our anniver­sary year. Our mes­sage to employ­ees, cus­tomers, and part­ners is: We serve peo­ple by ensur­ing a reli­able, eco­nom­i­cal, and sus­tain­able sup­ply of elec­tric­i­ty with our inno­va­tions, now and in the future.

Michal­ka: The inven­tion of the high-speed resis­tor-type tap-chang­er was rev­o­lu­tion­ary and remains the foun­da­tion of our suc­cess to this day. I am par­tic­u­lar­ly fas­ci­nat­ed by the pio­neer­ing spir­it of that time–and the fact that it lives on in our com­pa­ny. For us, qual­i­ty, inno­va­tion, and cus­tomer focus are both a com­mit­ment and an incen­tive.

Breuer: I see the tap chang­er more through the eyes of an engi­neer. It is a ground­break­ing inven­tion, com­pa­ra­ble to Carl Benz’s first motor car or Thomas Alva Edison’s light bulb. Although it is not as vis­i­ble because it is hid­den inside the trans­former, the high­speed resis­tor-type tap-chang­er was just as influen­tial for our indus­try. Its 100-year suc­cess sto­ry proves that this inven­tion was huge­ly sig­nifi­cant and also future ori­ent­ed. 

Making a groundbreaking invention is one thing, but how do you ensure that its success is sustainable as a company? What is your recipe for success? 

Scheubeck: One very impor­tant fac­tor is that we are still a fam­i­ly-owned com­pa­ny in the sixth gen­er­a­tion. If we were list­ed on the stock exchange, we would not be able to do what we have been doing for the indus­try for decades. Our inde­pen­dence allows us to stick with solu­tions even if they do not appear to be eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable at first. Let me give you an exam­ple: More than eight years ago, we intro­duced the ECOTAP^® VPD^®, a tap chang­er for the low­est volt­age lev­el. We had pre­vi­ous­ly con­duct­ed stud­ies on grid devel­op­ment, but at that time no one was think­ing about reg­u­lat­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion trans­form­ers. Today, it has already become a stan­dard in dis­tri­b­u­tion grids. We have stay­ing pow­er, and that is exact­ly what makes the dif­fer­ence.

Breuer: I can only confirm that. From the customer’s point of view, trust plays a major role. Our part­ners often tell us: You are a reli­able port in the storm. While oth­ers change their cor­po­rate struc­tures, we remain sta­ble and focused on the long term. And inter­nal­ly, I feel that the pas­sion here is extraordinary–going the extra mile is not the excep­tion, but the stan­dard. This is strong­ly linked to our fam­i­ly tra­di­tion.

Michal­ka: And for our employ­ees, it means that we can give suc­cess a fair chance. We have the free­dom to believe in a tech­nol­o­gy or an application–and to pur­sue it even when oth­ers would have giv­en up long ago. This inde­pen­dence is a real dri­ving force for all of us, and long-term think­ing is deeply root­ed in our val­ues. That is the basis of our inno­v­a­tive strength.

Innovation is a recurring theme throughout Reinhausen’s history. What do you understand by innovation?

Scheubeck: Our aim is to cre­ate solu­tions that are as sub­stan­tial­ly new as Dr. Jansen’s inven­tion was at its time. This inno­va­tion under­stand­ing is part of our val­ues and the time fac­tor plays a deci­sive role here. And in this respect, we dif­fer sig­nifi­cant­ly from oth­er com­pa­nies that focus on short-term suc­cess through sim­ple devel­op­ments with lit­tle nov­el­ty val­ue, or even on imi­ta­tion. We take the time to cre­ate some­thing tru­ly new.

Michal­ka: For us, the courage to engage in “con­struc­tive self-destruc­tion” is always part of the process. We don’t rest on our lau­rels, but rather keep ques­tion­ing our­selves until we find a bet­ter solu­tion. That’s the only way to remain the mar­ket leader.

What are the latest products that have emerged from this spirit?

Breuer: Definite­ly the new VACUTAP^® VI. With this tap chang­er, we have imple­ment­ed the prin­ci­ple of the high-speed resis­tor-type tap-chang­er in a min­i­mal­ist way. We were able to halve the amount of mate­r­i­al required, there­by cre­at­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty in pro­duc­tion. It was devel­oped specifi­cal­ly for the grid con­nec­tion of renew­ables, where cost-effec­tive­ness is cru­cial, but sus­tain­abil­i­ty and con­sis­tent­ly high reli­a­bil­i­ty are also play­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant roles.

Michal­ka: To achieve this, we have deeply rethought the VACUTAP^® VI from the customer’s perspective–and that is pre­cise­ly where a small rev­o­lu­tion lies. Less mate­r­i­al means a low­er car­bon footprint–in pro­duc­tion as well as through­out the entire val­ue chain, right through to sub­se­quent recy­cling. And yet the qual­i­ty stan­dards remain high.

The energy transition poses enormous challenges for the energy industry worldwide. Grids are being rebuilt, and infrastructure is becoming more complex and can only be managed with the help of digitalization and AI. How is Reinhausen prepared for this?

Breuer: We have been the mar­ket leader in tap chang­ers for 100 years – and we intend to remain so. Fast fol­low­ers may copy us, but we con­stant­ly rein­vent our­selves and con­tin­ue to cor­rect­ly antic­i­pate mar­ket devel­op­ments which are becom­ing increas­ing­ly diverse on a region­al basis. Chi­na is a con­ti­nent unto itself, indus­tri­al­iza­tion is grow­ing in South­east Asia, and the US is dis­tanc­ing itself polit­i­cal­ly. Our response to these sit­u­a­tions is to increase our local pres­ence.

Because cus­tomer prox­im­i­ty is part of our val­ues, we are already very well pre­pared for this with cur­rent­ly 44 affil­i­at­ed com­pa­nies in 28 coun­tries. Our Pow­er Qual­i­ty busi­ness seg­ment also makes a sig­nifi­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the ener­gy tran­si­tion by filter­ing out the non-lin­ear, dis­rup­tive influences caused when out­put from wind farms and solar plants are fed into the grid via pow­er elec­tron­ics. And with HIGHVOLT’s cable test­ing tech­nol­o­gy, we increase the oper­a­tional reli­a­bil­i­ty and avail­abil­i­ty of HVDC lines of more than 500 kV, such as for SüdLink in Ger­many.

Michal­ka: Togeth­er with our cus­tomers, we are shap­ing the ener­gy tran­si­tion. This is firm­ly anchored in our strat­e­gy, describes how we want to change in order to mas­ter glob­al chal­lenges, and involves our employ­ees in all regions of the world.

Scheubeck: It is impor­tant that we con­tin­ue to move con­sis­tent­ly from prod­ucts to solu­tions. Today, we under­stand not only the trans­former, but also its role in the entire grid. And with our solu­tions for dig­i­tal­iza­tion and for asset per­for­mance man­age­ment, we help our cus­tomers to work more eco­nom­i­cal­ly while com­pen­sat­ing for the short­age of skilled work­ers.

Due to the global expansion and restructuring of networks, the demand for energy technology is enormous. Reinhausen is also growing rapidly. How are you setting up production for the future?

Scheubeck: As the mar­ket leader, we were the first to feel the wave of increased demand, and our capac­i­ties were exhaust­ed very quick­ly. In response we have expand­ed rapid­ly and are con­tin­u­ing to do so consistently–also on a region­al basis–in order to fur­ther short­en deliv­ery times and ensure mate­r­i­al avail­abil­i­ty. From our cus­tomers’ per­spec­tive, these mea­sures are already hav­ing the desired effect, and we will con­tin­ue to do more in the future.

Michal­ka: We have there­fore just launched the largest invest­ment pro­gram in our company’s history–with a three-dig­it mil­lion Euro amount. For exam­ple, we are dou­bling pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty in Ger­many and qua­dru­pling it in Chi­na. This will enable us to con­tin­ue to effi­cient­ly meet the ris­ing demand in the super cycle of the glob­al ener­gy tran­si­tion in the future.

Breuer: Anoth­er unique sell­ing point is that we can main­tain even decades-old tap chang­ers and fur­ther extend their ser­vice lives. Qual­i­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and sus­tain­abil­i­ty remain our hall­marks, even in times of high growth.

The energy transition can be seen as the world’s largest sustainability project. What is Reinhausen itself doing to promote sustainability?

Scheubeck: Our prod­ucts are designed for decades of use and max­i­mum reli­a­bil­i­ty. This makes it dif­fi­cult to change mate­ri­als at short notice, which may be nec­es­sary, for exam­ple, due to changes in legal require­ments. In this respect, sus­tain­abil­i­ty for us means above all think­ing ahead with com­pre­hen­sive respon­si­bil­i­ty for decades to come.

Breuer: There is often a lack of clear rules, so in the con­text of prod­uct devel­op­ment we have to decide today which mate­ri­als will still be per­mit­ted in ten or more years’ time. In this regard, the short-sight­ed­ness of politi­cians is more of a hin­drance than a help. We also weigh up CO₂ reduc­tion and recy­cla­bil­i­ty very carefully–but always with a view to ensur­ing the secure oper­a­tion of our prod­ucts.

Michal­ka: For us as a fam­i­ly-owned busi­ness, sus­tain­abil­i­ty has always been a mat­ter of course. We use nat­ur­al resources carefully–from low-emis­sion paint­ing facil­i­ties to pho­to­voltaics and LED con­ver­sions. We take respon­si­bil­i­ty, not because it’s fash­ion­able, but because we only have this one world.

Finally, let’s take a look into the future: Where do you see Reinhausen in 2030?

Scheubeck: By then, our per­cep­tion will be mul­ti-region­al. In addi­tion to phys­i­cal solu­tions, soft­ware, analy­sis, and remote main­te­nance will play greater roles. Our indus­try is not inno­va­tion-ori­ent­ed, but rather safe­ty-ori­ent­ed. How­ev­er, due to the changes brought about by the glob­al ener­gy tran­si­tion, many com­pa­nies now have to adopt new solu­tions more quick­ly. And that is pre­cise­ly our advan­tage: we have already devel­oped many of these solu­tions before they were even in demand. We are active­ly shap­ing the market–we’re not wait­ing for oth­ers to do some­thing, but are dri­ving devel­op­ment our­selves. In the future, our cus­tomers will chal­lenge us even more in areas such as oper­a­tions man­age­ment, con­sult­ing, and remote con­trol. In addi­tion, we are expect­ed to have an even more com­pe­tent local pres­ence and to enable oth­ers to make the best pos­si­ble use of our tech­ni­cal solu­tions. 

Breuer: Despite glob­al­iza­tion and tech­no­log­i­cal advances, our deep roots in Regens­burg will remain intact as a Bavar­i­an fam­i­ly-owned busi­ness.

Michal­ka: Look­ing at the Regens­burg site, I envi­sion a dig­i­tal cus­tomer expe­ri­ence cen­ter by 2030, where we will dis­cuss the future of ener­gy in 3D sim­u­la­tions. And in Haslbach, I see a state-of-the-art fac­to­ry with col­lab­o­ra­tive robots and AI-con­trolled process­es.