Dear Readers,

One of the important practices of influential companies is that they always observe and consider technological and market trends, following current developments, forecasting future needs and requirements, and planning and preparing for the pending changes. The same is true for the companies in our industry. However, over the past few years we’ve been witnessing a trend where even middle-sized and some relatively small companies are beginning to understand the importance of following the trends, making timely plans for the expected future circumstances. While some trends emerge due to technical reasons, there are also trends that develop as a result of new regulations, one example being the so-called eco-design regulation for various electrical devices, including power transformers.

I have recently had an honour to preside over a Plenary Session of My Transfo 2018, the ninth edition of the Oil & Transformer Conference held in Turin, Italy. While the main focus of this conference is transformer oils, other transformer-related topics are also discussed, particularly those that concern smart and environmentally-friendly solutions. This year, we reflected on eco-design (low-loss) transformers that are coming into use in line with the requirements of the Eco-Design Regulation implemented in the EU. The objective of this Regulation is to ensure that the power transformers placed on the EU market will result in energy savings and reduce CO2 emissions throughout their service lives, in a cost-effective manner.