Worldwide Pioneer in the Development of SmartGrids

May 27, 2013

One of the pressing issues of our time and for future generations is the development of technologies that generate and distribute energy in more sustainable, environmentally friendly ways. SmartGrids is one of the cutting-edge fields of research and development in this regard, seeking to establish more flexible arrangements of electric energy supply and use of significant shares of renewable energy resources. Dr. Bernd Michael Buchholz has been a leading figure in this field in the European Union, and has contributed to developing the European SmartGrids vision and strategy as an executive member of the European advisory council for the technology platform of the future electricity networks between 2004 and 2009.

Dr. Bernd Michael Buchholz looks back to an outstanding, productive career that has been marked by several major awards (by CIGRE, IEEE and VDE) and over 175 scientific papers published in six languages. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the Power Engineering University in Moscow in 1973 and 1976, respectively, the leading institute of its kind in the former Eastern bloc. As the manager for Digital network automation of the Institute of Energy Supply in Dresden, he made headlines by introducing the first worldwide digital automation, control and protection system for electric networks in 1983. In 1987, Dr. Buchholz became the director of the Institute.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he was offered the position of director of the R&D Department of Protection and Substation Control Systems by the world market leader in this technology - the Siemens AG (1990 until 1999). From 2000 to 2006, he served as the president of the unit Network Analysis and Consulting at Siemens AG, which he transferred in 2005 into the world market leader in this area, Power Technologies International, with locations in Erlangen (Germany), Schenectady (USA), Manchester (UK) and worldwide Centers of Competence (e.g. India, Pakistan, China, South Africa, Colombia). He has consulted the energy ministries of the US (after the New York blackout), Russia, China, and other countries.

While Dr. Buchholz had to retire from this position for health reasons, he continued to act as a technical consultant for several national and international projects on the secure network integration of volatile renewable energy resources. He is currently active as the technical and strategic advisor of the European Lighthouse Project, Web2Energy (www.web2energy.com). In the framework of this project, for the first time all aspects of the SmartGrids approach based on prospective standards were developed and introduced in the practical operation of the 20 kV distribution network of the German distribution system operator Rhein Main Neckar. Dr. Buchholz also teaches at Magdeburg and Salzburg Universities and within the education program of the German Society for Electro-technology, Information and Communication Technology and Electronics (VDE). He heads the expert group of the German Power Engineering Society (ETG/VDE), Active Electricity Networks and is strongly involved in ongoing discussions regarding far-reaching changes of German energy policy by consulting with the Ministries of Economy and Environmental Protection, as well as the Federal Network Agency and the political parties of the German Parliament.

One of his three daughters, Dr. Larissa Buchholz, looks to her father as a source of great inspiration, saying that his pioneering spirit as a researcher and his way of merging relentless intellectual curiosity with pressing broader societal concerns in his cutting-edge work on sustainable energy distribution has set high standards for her own path as a researcher. In her sociological research, which has received several awards already and has led to her becoming the first female sociologist at the Harvard Society of Fellows, Dr. Larissa Buchholz pursues research on the cultural dimensions of globalization.