Mr. Menderes, the energy transition is posing big challenges for the sector – and for grid operators in particular. Many transformer stations and substations need to be expanded or built from scratch. What role can Eplan play here?

Haluk Menderes: With the Eplan Platform, we can speed up and simplify the planning of equipment throughout the energy system – from generation to consumption. This also applies in particular to the building and operation of transformer substations. We are therefore transferring our decades of experience in industrial automation to the energy technology sector.

You already have a well-established market position in industry – i.e. in mechanical engineering – but would it be fair to say that the energy sector is a relatively new market for Eplan?

Haluk Menderes: Actually, this market isn’t that new to us. For many years now, we’ve had a whole host of customers who work in the energy technology sector. For example, nine of the ten biggest global manufacturers of wind turbines use Eplan for their development work. Moreover, one of the global market leaders in energy storage systems has around 400 active Eplan licences. When it comes to grid operators, though, you’re right – we’re not as well known or established in that field. However, this situation is now changing, and we’re already implementing some challenging projects.

So can your solutions be transferred from industrial automation to grid system planning with ease?

Haluk Menderes: They certainly can. The existing Eplan Platform for electrical engineering and fluid engineering is already ideally suited to grid operators – for everything from preliminary planning to engineering complete with automated creation of schematics. We provide support throughout a system’s life cycle – and this is clearly shown in practice. Of course, there are always adaptations to be made – to comply with the new IEC 61850 standard at the moment, for example – but we’re also developing new solutions specifically for the energy technology sector. What’s more, we’re expanding our teams all over the world to include experts in this field.

When showcasing their solutions to a grid operator, what benefits can these experts highlight?

Haluk Menderes: Well, in addition to the functions and end-to-end nature of our platform, we have more than 600 engineers working on the development and advanced development of our solutions at Eplan. That’s more than all our main competitors have in total. We’re also quite upfront about the fact that we focus on energy technology as a target market alongside industrial automation. We do that in conjunction with Rittal and in collaboration with partners, as our project with entegra and naturenergie netze shows, for example. This is a clear management commitment that we actively put into practice. We have around 70,000 industry customers who will benefit from this, too. I very rarely have a conversation with a customer that doesn’t include the topic of energy and the future of energy supplies. We want to play our part in helping ensure a reliable power supply in the all-electric society, too, by contributing our experience in standardisation, the digital twin and the use of cloud platforms, for example. This offers major benefits for users – and it’s also an exciting area with a lot of growth potential for us.

We’d like to finish by asking you to look into the future – in 2030, where will Eplan be on the energy industry market?

Haluk Menderes: By 2030, Eplan will be more or less just as well established as a planning tool there as it is in industry. Grid operators will create a digital twin for every new-build and conversion project – with Eplan for the secondary technology and with a similarly highly performing system for the primary technology. Both systems will interact and users will utilise this data throughout the entire life cycle of the infrastructure component in question. This will save them time and money. What’s more, just like their suppliers and service partners, they’ll be working on the basis of data that is shared, consistent and always up to date.