Innovations in Power Transmission

Disruptive technologies for the grid of the future

Innovative technology – developed for the most pressing market trends

A stable grid is essential for successful energy systems of the future. And our plan directly addresses the necessary expansion and restructuring for transmission and distribution grids. As the global power transmission market leader, our technology portfolio is well-positioned with excellent growth prospects driven by industry-leading solutions that tackle key market trends like digitalization, decarbonization and grid stability. Learn more about our innovative technology, connected products, and smarter systems that are already shaping the grid of tomorrow, today.

 

“We're strongly positioned to drive disruptive ideas together with our customers and partners. The basis for our success? It's three things. Our innovations, deep curiosity and new technologies. These are the fundamental drivers that empower us to look to the future grid with confidence."

Dr. Alexander Rentschler, Head of Technology and Innovation

Developed to meet your specific needs

Power Transmission innovation highlights

Digitalization

Unlocking the potential of the Internet of Energy  (IoE)

Decarbonization

Building eco-friendly power transmission systems

Grid resilience

Enhancing grid reliability and network stability

World Economic Forum

World leader in transmission technology

The latest World Economic Forum global innovations report credits two of our technology product offerings among the most significant and disruptive innovations in the energy industry within the last decade. Learn more about our HVDC PLUS/SVC PLUS solutions and our SF 6-free Blue switchgear in the full report: 'Global Innovations from the Energy Sector 2010-2020’.

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Inventors of the Year 2020 | Category Outstanding Invention

Climate-friendly High Voltage Switchgear

Circuit breakers are needed to ensure that our energy supply systems run smoothly. Until now, they’ve used gases that are much more harmful to the climate than CO₂. Sylvio Kosse and Paul Gregor Nikolic at Siemens Energy are working on a way to use pure air in place of these gases. The switching functions on their prototype are CO₂-neutral.
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Sylvio Kosse and Paul Gregor Nikolic at Siemens Energy in Erlangen are working on a climate-friendly alternative. They’ve found a way to extend vacuum-switching technology from the medium-voltage range into the area of high voltage – and they’re using pure air instead of climate-harming gases.

Sylvio Kosse and Paul Gregor Nikolic

"Using an automobile engine as an analogy, instead of converting an internal combustion engine to a different fuel system to make it more climate friendly, we’ve completely redesigned the drive technology. We’ve developed the prototype for a CO₂-neutral circuit breaker that works and is cost-effective."

Paul Gregor Nikolic, member of a multi-location Siemens Energy research group in Erlangen and Berlin

We all need electricity – around the clock, day after day. To ensure that our energy supply systems run smoothly, we need circuit breakers. They’re used all over the world to protect electricity grids by preventing damage caused by events like lightning strikes. The flipside is that until now, these circuit breakers have contained climate-harming gases.
Sylvio Kosse and Paul Gregor Nikolic at Siemens Energy in Erlangen are working on a climate-friendly alternative. They’ve found a way to extend vacuum-switching technology from the medium-voltage range into the area of high voltage – and they’re using pure air instead of climate-harming gases. The switching processes in their prototype are CO2-neutral. Their Inventors of the Year 2020 award in the Outstanding Invention category recognizes their work on this project. The patent applications associated with their award are part of an IP portfolio comprising about 50 patent families that protect Siemens Energy technologies, including SF6-free switchgear. “Sulfur hexafluoride, or SF6 for short, is a state-of-the-art gas that’s used in high-voltage systems as an isolating medium and to quench arcing,” explains Kosse, who heads a multi-location Siemens Energy research group with members in Erlangen and Berlin. “SF6 guarantees safe interruption of the current and is a very good isolator,” he adds. But when it gets into the atmosphere, it has an extremely damaging effect on the climate: “The impact of one kilogram of SF6 in terms of climate warming is 23,000 times greater than of one kilogram of CO2.” According to Kosse, that’s why science has been working since the 1980s to reduce this threat to the environment, or remove it entirely. “There are alternative gases that work just as well in high-voltage systems,” says Nikolic, one of the researchers in Kosse’s team. One approach is to improve the properties of these gases using admixtures. “But that can create undesired characteristics: Some options are hazardous to human health or they’re equally bad for the environment.”
Kosse and Nikolic wanted to try an entirely different method, as Nikolic describes: “Using an automobile engine as an analogy, instead of converting an internal combustion engine to a different fuel system in order to change some outcome, we’ve completely redesigned the drive technology and developed a prototype that’s cost-effective for our customers.” The CO2-neutral switching technology the inventors at Siemens Energy developed brings two things together: It combines vacuum-switching technology with the use of normal air for isolation. Kosse says efforts to achieve this by extending vacuum-switching technology from the medium-voltage range into the area of high voltage have been underway for more than 20 years. “The vacuum interrupters needed for higher voltage levels currently exist only in laboratories,” he notes. “We have one in the lab in Erlangen, and we’ve been able to show that it works.”
“The idea hit me while I was driving,” Nikolic recalls. “Sitting in the car and looking at high-voltage lines, I suddenly realized that our vacuum interrupters had to be positioned like pistons on a crankshaft – and that we needed a new kind of drive system entirely.” Back in Erlangen, he had the principal components made using a 3D printer. “Gregor was the one who introduced us to 3D printing,” says Kosse. “I was stunned: Overnight we had components that easily allowed us to get a much better idea about whether our ideas would work and how. That made our development process a whole lot faster.”
Kosse says he appreciates it when his teammates take the initiative and contribute their own viewpoints: “Gregor is an electrical engineer, and I’m a trained radio mechanic with a background in physics. So we ask different questions.” Working together, they’ve sometimes made amazing progress: “In those creative phases, whether it’s in the tea room at the office or over an after-work drink, we don’t need to explain anything, we just understand each other.” If the combination of vacuum-switching technology and air isolation they developed at Siemens Energy becomes the standard, they’ll have made history.

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