October 5, 2018

Editorial message

Dear Readers, Talking to my colleagues, I am quite frequently asked a question about the current situation in our industry, referring both to the market...

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Dear Readers,

Talking to my colleagues, I am quite frequently asked a question about the current situation in our industry, referring both to the market and technology. Transformers Magazine publishes the news that brings information about these topics, but people are also looking for potential conclusions that are based on all the available information. It is often possible to make inferences from the current information, but once you create conclusions about present circumstances, the next question that usually follows is about what we can expect in the future. It is quite difficult to say something reliable about the future without dedicated research, although this is also sometimes possible. I recall a remark that I made in the editorial message of the magazine’s special edition on bushings published last year, where I commented on recent innovations in our industry and their impact on future trends. There I stated: „In my humble opinion, among the developments we have recently witnessed in the realm of bushings, the ‘pluggable bushing’ concept is most potent to influence not only the future of the bushings, but also the future of the transformer and the way it is used.“

This was my personal impression at the time, which has been confirmed by a recently conducted survey “Trends in transformers technology”. Among six different technologies (pluggable transformers, dry-type transformers, high-temperature transformers, dryformers, superconducting transformers and solid-state transformers), the pluggable transformers technology, which is based on pluggable bushings, ranked highest in the survey, demonstrating the expectation that this will be the most progressive technology in the next five years. This was the aggregate result from all responses, but a more detailed analysis which considered the responses from a profile of key stakeholders (transformer OEMs or end-users, for example) showed similar results.

This has made me wonder, how comes that the concept of pluggable transformer is recognized more prominently than other, perhaps more sound concepts such as digitalization, online, smart, etc.? The latter concepts were not covered in the same way in the survey, so they might not be directly comparable to the pluggable transformer in this sense, but they can be compared to it indirectly as they were covered by other questions, and still they didn’t receive the same recognition.

The pluggable transformer fits perfectly into the concept of resilient grid, which has become extremely important nowadays and is bound to become even more important in the future. Resilient grid requires solutions that enable the shortest possible time to erect the transformer after a failure, and this is certainly the wind at back that helps getting pluggable transformer technology accepted.

I must mention that there are also many other innovative concepts which may not have the potential to reframe the industry, but which definitely deserve wider attention, and still, they are struggling to get any recognition.

In this sense, I believe that one of the keys to success is also communication. Pluggable transformers could serve as a role model example of this, at least if we consider how developments in this technology have been communicated through Transformers Magazine, with a crystal clear and technically-based value proposition. Concepts such as digitalization are rather new and it will take some more time until all opportunities that they offer are communicated to and understood by all stakeholders.

In this issue, we bring you an interview with a senior manager in a leading global company with one of the longest traditions in the industry, who presents new trends and solutions in sales as a way to expand business and innovate conventional business processes. In addition to the interview, don’t miss the fresh insights and commentary by our four columnists in our regular columns covering the latest market trends, transformer maintenance, condition monitoring and transformer lifecycle.

A selection of technical articles and advertorials bring presentations and discussions on a range of topics including transformer technology, testing and diagnostics, energy and noise efficiency, transformer design for HVDC applications, and more.

Don’t hesitate to tell us what you think about the topics and issues covered in the magazine, or to express intent to present your research or point of view on any of these topics or any other topic of interest for our industry. For any questions on how to publish your work with us, contact info@merit-media.com.

I wish you a joyful reading,

Mladen Banovic

Editor-in-Chief

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