During the CWIEME event held in Berlin, APC Media had the opportunity to interview Wilfried Breuer, the Managing Director of Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen, one of the leading companies in the industry. Join us in our conversation with this great Thought Leader.

We are at the CWIEME Berlin event 2023 and are at the Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen booth, sitting down with an interviewee whom we've had the pleasure of hosting several times, the Managing Director of MR Wilfried Breuer. Wilfried, thank you so much for sitting down with us once again.

Wilfired Breuer: It's my pleasure. Thank you for coming here. 

Could you please tell us a little bit about MR, about its history and experience in the industry, and the products and services that you offer?

WB: Yes, we are a very traditional and old company. We are 150 years old and have for all this time remained in the same family ownership in the fifth generation. And for the last 100 years, we are the inventors and the leaders of on-load tap-changing technology that made us globally known and very present basically everywhere in the world. And that is still our core product. Our main challenge now is to build around that product and broaden our base and be a leading supporter of the entire transformer industry.

Can you share a little bit about any success story that you feel significantly improves your customer’s operations or results and how?

WB: I would outline here among many our ETOS system. ETOS stands for Embedded Transformer Operating system and it basically combines all the functions of digitalization around the asset transformer, because most utilities have transformers from different manufacturers. But when it comes to asset management and analysis of the data and sensoring, you want to have one system to harmonize and have one evaluation of the status of your transformer fleet. ETOS enables this data concentration and collects input from all sensors at the same time. It's an open system and it is fully integrated into our electronic tap changer drives so it will be there anyway in all our future applications.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the industry currently and how is MR addressing those challenges?

WB: I think, traditionally, the industry has been fairly conservative. Whenever we introduce an innovation, it takes five years to test it, to accept it, and to pilot it before it can be scaled. Electricity will be the backbone of the future green industry, of green energy. Electricity will be the go-to replacement for fossil fuels in many applications, such as mobility or domestic heating and industry. That means we don't have the time to wait these five years or more to scale up every innovation. We have to become a bit more innovative, just as other industries are. I think the challenge is stepping over this shadow of our own industry tradition, because we need to decarbonize the world very quickly which means a game changer in this way of introducing innovations.

What are your thoughts on the CWIEME event this year so far and have you seen any interesting developments or trends?

WB: Yes, CWIEME has been very impressive this year. I can hardly remember a busy day like today, which is for me, a great reflection. I could hardly get out of any meetings today. I think the leading theme, that I have seen here this year is sustainability - How to create a sustainable energy supply and how to become sustainable ourselves. We need to help our customers, our grid operators, to become more sustainable. but at the same time, we also have to do our own homework. I think that's the leading common object, which I am taking away from seeing many other boots today.

What is MR's vision for the future of this industry and how do you plan to contribute to that future?

WB: I mentioned before our ETOS as our big step towards digitalization. That is what I would like to highlight here. I think we will face a shortage of qualified manpower. It's already very imminent here in Europe and in America, and it will get more critical. At the same time, we cannot slow down because of a lack of manpower. So I think digitalization can help to do things more efficiently, more automated, with less qualified manpower. So instead of having a transformer expert with 30 years of experience, you have a database to make the right asset decisions, how to do and when to do maintenance, and when to go in a replacement investment. 

Wilfried, it has been a pleasure talking to you, as always. You are truly one of the Thought Leaders of this industry on a global level. Thank you so much.

WB: Thank you very much for these very nice compliments and for having me.