April 5, 2017

Interview with Bryan Sayler, President at Doble Engineering Company

Doble – one of the pillars of the industry Doble has served the electric power industry for nearly a century. While that legacy of service...

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Doble – one of the pillars of the industry

Doble has served the electric power industry for nearly a century. While that legacy of service is impressive, it is also a reminder of what we need to live up to on a daily basis. Our mission is to ensure that all people have reliable, safe and secure energy. Our employees demonstrate their commitment to that mission by engaging directly with customers and industry stakeholders on a daily basis. Doble operates in 14 locations around the globe and employs a growing team of more than 400 employees. We have offices in the U.S. Europe, India, South Africa, China and the Middle East. We also operate four oil laboratories and one high-voltage lab in the U.S. Total revenue last year was approximately $130 million, of which transformer related business represents about 60 percent. Another important part of our business is related to testing protective relays.

Key to success

First and foremost, we have a great team of engineers with direct industry experience and deep understanding of how transformers are used in the field. Doble is much more than an instrumentation company; we are also a service provider sharing the knowledge we have built up over nine decades in business.

Obviously, instrumentation and software are important, however, the real secret to our success is that the people designing these tools have the same background and qualifications as those using the tools in the field. Our team includes individuals who have direct experience with transformer design, management of utility field operations and asset managers. For example, Tony McGrail, our solutions director for asset management and monitoring technology, has been a utility asset manager. He understands what the asset manager wants to know about the transformer, when and how he wants to know it and how to decipher what is important and what is not. What we have done is designed our instruments, software and services to meet the needs of our customers in the way they perform their daily work.

Many companies make instruments and can measure the voltage or current and tell you the results. Collecting data is not enough, you must be able to turn that information into timely and actionable intelligence. The pattern of data should lead to conclusions which allow you to decide the next steps. This is often a daunting challenge for our customers. We have the ability to consult with our customers and provide them with industry best practices. They may manage a couple of hundred transformers but Doble is looking at tens of thousands of transformers around the world every year. What Doble provides is the ability to go to the next level by interpreting measured data and preparing a recommended plan of action.

 

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