Alberto Prieto – Global Portfolio Manager and Digital Lead for Transformers at Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Hitachi ABB are leaders in design tools, monitoring options and in the validation models and tools available to interpret a transformer’s condition and overload.
byTransformers Magazine
- Please, tell us a little bit about yourself.
You could say I was born into the Hitachi ABB Power Grids world, which for many of us is much more than a job, it really does feel like a family. I joined after leaving the university and have now completed more than 23 years. I consider myself very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to work across the globe in different roles and teams from many of our 60 transformer factories and 30 service centers. This has also allowed me to meet many of our customers and learn from their challenges and needs.
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- You have mentioned customers’ needs, how have you seen those needs changing during your time in the transformer industry?
The core needs of a reliable and dependable infrastructure have not changed, but you can see the expectations of power consumers are continually increasing, and any problem a TSO or DSO may have can cause major consequences for modern industrial processes or quickly become exposed and criticized via social media. On a more positive front, both consumers and network operators are increasingly living in the knowledge-based economy, looking to educate themselves with respect to the energy they are using, how it is produced and how they can prevent waste.
The general consumption of electricity has been increasing over time, but with the switch to renewable sources, there has been both increase in the demand as well as changes in the grid dynamics with power flows, changing from bulk unidirectional models to distributed generation and now even to virtual power plants.
Hitachi ABB Power Grids are world leaders not only in terms of design tools and monitoring options but also in the validation models and tools available to interpret a transformer’s condition and potential overload
- Renewables are a hot topic, what does this mean for transformers?
Renewables are a broad topic themselves. At the utility level, there are significant investments in large-scale wind parks, many of which are offshore. These represent benefits of a more consistent power availability but bring many challenges with respect to the environmental conditions and focus on low size and weight, not to mention transportation and maintenance. Solar is also showing dramatic levels of investment, so we expect to see many more “prosumers” and virtual power plants I mentioned, bringing along the need for managing high levels of flexibility, re-dispatches and maintaining the power quality.
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