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E-T-A employees are living the electric dream

E-T-A’s zero-emissions dream is more than a company focus. Individual employees are living the sustainable ideals to make E-T-A a truly eco-friendly business

When E-T-A Engineering Technology business development manager Philipp Teepe first joined the company halfway through 2017, he wanted a new challenge and a cultural change. Five years into his time with the circuit breaker technology provider, Teepe is now living and breathing E-T-A’s sustainable lifestyle.

“I was previously working with a huge international group before I arrived at E-T-A,” Teepe told ABC. “What I love about the company is that the management is empowering all of us employees to live sustainably.

“I love the fact we’re on this mission to benefit the world and lives around us and not just say it without action.”

As a BDM with E-T-A, Teepe is also part of the company’s CO2 reduction team that aims to prioritise reducing the company’s emissions. He recently initiated a company-wide survey to understand how employees travelled to work and analyse how each individual could reduce their carbon footprint. For a global company, this is no easy feat.

As a result of the survey, E-T-A is now installing more charging stations at the company’s car park to help employees who can’t charge electric vehicles at home. When employees travel, E-T-A is ensuring they travel by electric vehicles or train rather than by plane whenever possible.

It may all be small details, but Teepe knows these initiatives are making an impact.

“It’s motivating people but in the long run also helping our business,” Teepe says. “Other initiatives include installing solar panels, reducing energy consumption, turning to wood-based heating over oil and gas, and recording emissions in our supply chain to see where we can actively cut consumption.”

This sustainable culture has become so entrenched in E-T-A’s daily schedule that it’s now being reflected in its suite of products. The engineering technology includes circuit breakers and protective equipment for assets and vehicles like buses and trucks.

With the bus and coach industry quickly turning towards battery electric and hydrogen fuel-cell solutions, Teepe says E-T-A is aware that electric energy is becoming pivotal for the sector. With electricity production and consumption set to increase significantly in the coming years, the E-T-A BDM says his company’s technology becomes more valuable for manufacturers.

“Wherever power distribution, overcurrent protection and electric switching is playing a role, E-T-A can make a difference,” Teepe says. “It’s part of our DNA to go beyond existing solutions in the field of power distribution.

“Our motto is to protect lives and assets, and by doing that we also support the transition to zero-emissions technology.”

As a BDM for E-T-A’s bus and truck business, Teepe focuses on reducing carbon emissions by supporting manufacturers wanting to transition to zero-emissions vehicles. Whether it be battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell buses, Teepe is helping prepare OEMs with the right technology to keep electric charging infrastructure safe.

“On a daily basis in the E-T-A transportation division, we talk to key clients to understand their existing and future challenges,” Teepe says. “We talk about challenges in overcurrent protection in battery electric vehicles where safety, performance and reliability are key.

“We then propose and discuss solutions to the challenges. Once a good idea exists, we develop new components like contactors, breakers or pyro-fuses.”

Examples of these products acting as solutions include E-T-A’s HVR10 hybrid high voltage contactor that withstands high short circuit currents and has a self-monitoring function that signals critical operating conditions to the control gear.  

Teepe says other contactors tend to get damaged fast, but the HVR10 switches high voltages suppressing the arc when opening or closing mechanical contacts on an electric bus. The SCS Smart Control System also replaces conventional fuse and relay centres, using CAN-communication to monitor currents, voltages and other switches on board the bus.


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“These products also come at a much lower energy consumption as other energy consuming electromechanical relays,” Teepe says. “This technology now means significant holding currents aren’t needed anymore.”

While E-T-A continues producing this circuit protection technology, Teepe says the company is also looking into autonomous driving projects to make transport more efficient.

The E-T-A BDM says the company is looking at the big picture when it comes to providing solutions for overcurrent protection for highly available electric systems as a way of providing sustainable autonomous buses and solving the driver shortage problem.

Teepe says his role involves considering these issues as well as talking to manufacturers to install widespread electric solutions to the global market.

“In the transportation division we talk to key bus and coach OEMs to develop new overcurrent protection solutions,” Teepe says. “These solutions support the OEMs’ efforts to offer sustainable but also reliable, safe and cost-effective vehicles to operators worldwide.

“Only through this process is it possible to transition to a zero-emission industry anytime soon.”

From Teepe’s perspective as a BDM with E-T-A, he says price tags on carbon emissions will continue to reiterate to the industry that manufacturers should be considering electrical solutions when building new models. With electric protection paramount in these products to maintain safety assurances, Teepe says E-T-A’s circuit breaker technology is more important than it has ever been.

While Teepe will continue being one of E-T-A’s many workers living the sustainable ethos in his day-to-day life, he says the company as a whole will continue pushing to become an important solutions provider for global companies wanting to take the zero-emissions leap.

“When it comes to emissions, E-T-A’s technology is a cutting-edge solution,” Teepe says. “E-T-A will continue its efforts to reduce and ultimately completely remove carbon emissions through our evolving products.”

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