One day he is absorbed in theories and simulations. And the next day he meets customers and sells them technical solutions. When Tomas Larsson, systems engineer at Power Systems, discusses different aspects of his work, the main thread is undoubtedly SVC Light, the new generation of static var compensators.
“But it’s sometimes difficult to convince others about how tough it really is!” Despite this, Tomas Larsson is even more convincing when talking about his field of activities. His eyes sparkle and he gesticulates eagerly with his hands while explaining the ins and outs of SVC Light technology. It has the same roots as perhaps the more familiar HVDC Light technology.
“One application of SVC Light is to suppress disturbances and light flicker on power supply systems caused by different loads such arc furnaces in steel mills, rolling mills and similar industrial plants. Such disturbances may cause the lamps in our homes to flicker or affect other electrical and electronic equipment,” explains Tomas.
He has dedicated more than eight years to this technology and is currently working as a technical coordinator for the Light technology at Power Systems – FACTS.
“It’s an extremely fascinating job, which just now is full of different activities due to the strong expansion of the market for FACTS technology,” he says.
“It all really began when I was doing my military service. Both Ericsson and Asea came along to inform us about jobs. And thanks to Västerås I decided to choose Asea. Stockholm, in my opinion, was too large a city for a person like me who grew up in Skövde, a small town in southern Sweden.”
After two years he felt the urge to resume his studies again and chose as his subject Electrical Engineering with focus on industrial electronics. When he had completed his degree project at the Competence Center in Electric Power Engineering of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, he was asked whether he would like to accept a postgraduate studentship and accepted this. After a somewhat crooked journey where he focused on various technologies, he found the route leading to SVC Light technology.
“Receiving a doctorate opens many doors, but unfortunately the title also sometimes creates a sense of distance. The only thing that is special about my doctorate is that I have been privileged to study in depth an interesting subject over a longer period of time. I know how the technology functions and can answer for it.”
In March 1998 Tomas decided to return to ABB. This was a natural step because some of the members in his project steering committee at the Royal Institute of Technology came from Power Systems.
“After only two weeks I got the opportunity to visit Germany and meet a prospective customer. This eventually resulted in an order and as a new employee it felt really great. I still think that project meetings with a customer are really inspiring. We must understand the customer’s needs, be familiar with the customer’s processes. When visiting a customer you are at the center of attention and are ABB’s ambassador. It’s my duty to be able to explain our solutions so that everybody can understand them. Contacts with customers act as a stimulus. Seeing how theories and simulations become practical realities makes the work all that more interesting. The financial aspect requires even more creativity."
”What drives me is finding out how the technology functions on a broad front. When you’ve been working on new technology and development projects, which account for a large share of our activities, you have to be well aware that there are many aspects that may lead to risks. Our work has several more dimensions than the purely technological one.”
Just now Tomas is once again at a crossroad, having to choose between his current role as technical coordinator and the in-depth study of further aspects of the control of SVC Light systems.
“I’ve not yet made up my mind, but at the moment I feel that I would
like to gain further knowledge of the technology.”