In conversation with Stephane Schaal

With more than 100 years of pioneering leadership, Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all.

byTransformers Magazine


With more than 100 years of pioneering leadership, Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. It serves customers in the utility, industry and infrastructure sectors with innovative solutions and services across the value chain. Hitachi Energy is also the global technology and market leader for transformers, including distribution (liquid-filled and dry-type) and traction transformers. It operates this business in about 90 countries and has 25 manufacturing plants of distribution and traction transformers across the world, supporting customer requirements of high reliability, quality and efficiency.

Here is a conversation that we had with Stephane Schaal, who is the Global Product Group Manager for Distribution and Traction transformers at Hitachi Energy’s Transformers Business.

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 “After starting my career in the automotive industry, I joined ABB at their Corporate Research Center in Switzerland as a scientist. That was a great opportunity to be part of a truly global, diverse and cutting-edge technology company. Since I was assigned the role to develop insulation materials, I was fortunate to be exposed to a wide range of power products like bushings, instrument transformers, gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), and, more particularly, the dry-type transformers.

After a few years in the research domain, I moved on to lead the product development, initially for dry-type transformers, and subsequently took over the leadership of the global R&D organization for the company’s transformers business before stepping into my current role in 2020 – which, by the way, coincided with the transition of the business from ABB to Hitachi Energy. Over the years, I have closely observed the changes that this industry has gone through. I believe these changes are primarily driven by:

  • increased energy efficiency regulations across geographies,
  • the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy generation in addition to increasing digitalization,
  • and their impact to both the transmission and (even more) the distribution grids.

Consequently, there is now a paradigm shift in how (and how much) energy we produce and consume.”

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