Munich, June 28–30, 2018

As has become tradition, this year’s High-Voltage and Power Systems Engineering Colloquium for research assistants took place during the last week of June. Now in its 26th year, the event was good in terms of attendance, with 38 participants from the Technical Universities of Darmstadt, Dresden, Ilmenau, Munich, and the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, and promised an interesting mix of topics from all areas of power engineering. The HSZG was represented by Mario Dreßler, Stefan Kittan, Stefan Kornhuber, Stefan Kühnel, Jun Ting Loh, and Harald Schmalfuß from the High-Voltage Engineering department

After a long journey, a hearty dinner at the “Tegernseer Tal” brewery was served to help participants get in the mood for the Munich setting, followed by a traditional city tour. The next morning, the program featured two series of presentations on classical high-voltage engineering and diagnostics, which met with keen interest from all participants. Two presentations from Zittau on the topics of diagnostics and high-voltage engineering also sparked technical discussions that continued throughout the day.

Afterward, the participants traveled by tour bus to Garmisch to tour the facilities of the Bavarian Zugspitzbahn. The subsequent tour provided detailed insights into the structure and operation of the facility, as well as the interplay between historical and modern technology.

The proven synergy of plant engineering and Mechanical Engineering—which has been in use for nearly 90 years—then safely transported us first to the Zugspitzplatt and then to the summit, which was a highlight of the event in more ways than one. After the return trip and dinner, we took a closer look at the laboratories belonging to the Chair of High-Voltage and Power Systems Engineering at the Technical University of Munich.

Day 3 of the colloquium was once again entirely devoted to high-voltage engineering, with presentations in three sessions covering the fields of switching, cables and equipment, and materials. As on the previous day, there were plenty of topics for discussion and a lively technical exchange among colleagues.

We would like to extend special thanks to Professor Dr.-Ing. Kindersberger and the team at the Technical University of Munich for the successful event, and we are already looking forward to hosting the 27th Colloquium on High-Voltage and Power Systems Engineering in Dresden in early July 2019.