Company
High-voltage technology
Until 1996, I worked as a design engineer at HOLEC Schaltgeräte Bad Muskau, responsible for the development of components and drives for circuit breakers, withdrawable units, and bushings. I provided technical support to the sales department on acquisition trips to Germany, Norway, and Poland.
From 1997 to 1999, my team and I initially designed custom solutions for complete air-insulated switchgear up to 36 kV and circuit breaker trolleys. These included, for example, various furnace switchgear for SIEMENS customers in Finland and Great Britain and a railway switchgear for ALSTOM Power Conversion. From 1999 onward, we worked on the development of the gas-insulated PTG01 for the then Peters & Thieding GmbH in Wentorf. KTE's task was to design the integrated switchgear and drives. After a very short development period, the system was successfully presented at the 2001 Hanover Fair and was initially used for the grid connection of VESTAS wind turbines.
Withdrawable units, bushings, and contact systems for air-insulated switchgear were developed for various applications and parameters for German customers, such as G+M Grünstadt, SGM Bad Muskau, and others. This period was characterized by severe economic difficulties for switchgear manufacturers. The cause was the liberalization of the energy market and the lack of investment by energy suppliers. A typically German phenomenon: clueless politicians destroy economic continuity. I therefore decided to look for customers outside of Germany.
The international orientation began with the development of cast-in vacuum switch poles for RZVA in Rivne, Ukraine, starting in 2002.
From 2003 onwards, numerous development projects followed in Asia for circuit breakers, gas-insulated, and SF6-free switchgear for DECOM GmbH, Shanghai CGIS/TIANLING, Shenyang HUALI, Suzhou LONGER Electric, and others. The design and dimensioning were carried out entirely by KTE. We also supervised prototype construction and the necessary development and type testing on-site. These projects were carried out in cooperation with Mr. Günter Leonhardt, who, as a business partner and mentor, played a key role in the company's focus on the Asian market.
In Germany, KTE developed a new air-insulated contactor panel in 2007 together with Siemens Berlin and Siemens Frankfurt. A little later, together with HORLEMANN in Uedem, we developed a family of cost-effective, modular air-insulated compact switchgear systems that offer high arc fault protection and have been well received by the market.
- Since 2007, we have been simulating the key physical processes in switchgear and switching devices and conducting our own scientific comparative studies.
- 2011 Research work on nitrogen at the TU Dresden
- 2012 Opening of the KTE office in Leipzig
- 2012 LONGER Electric exhibited the N2-insulated NIS developed by KTE at the Hannover Messe.
- 2013 Opening of the KTE office in Dresden
- 2014 Organization and presentations with B&E at the Quo Vadis? High-Voltage Technology conference, fundamental research into high-current contacts with contact spring elements, testing of new manufacturing technologies for the production of cost-effective gas-tight switchgear enclosures
- 2015 Start of research work on the evaluation and simulation of high-current AC and DC arcs in fluid insulating materials.
- Since 2016, ongoing projects for the development of stations and SF6-free switchgear and switchgear in Germany and internationally