To many people in the utility industry worldwide, the name NGK is synonymous with electrical insulators, the business area which actually gave the large Japanese company the three initials of its name. However, what is less known is that NGK also has activities in the field of distribution systems and equipment. Indeed, according to management this is an area of expanding interest as a growing demand is foreseen for distribution system products covering such areas as automation, voltage control
and lightning protection.
“We want our customers to know that we are not only developing conventional insulators but also modern power electronics and computer applications for distribution systems."
Today, insulators are seen as basically a mature business with total worldwide demand remaining quite stable as power networks become built up in most countries. Partly for this reason, NGK is looking to a range of new products and technologies to propel growth of the Power Business sector in the future. Says Shoji Sogo, General Manager of the Engineering Department at NGK’s Distribution System Division, With this business, we expect to develop into other fields much like NGK did itself based on its original ceramics technology.”
In particular, the area of distribution automation is seen as a growth sector for the future. “Although there has been a slowdown in Asia due to the financial crisis” says Sogo, “distribution automation is nevertheless developing worldwide and therefore it is also becoming a more interesting area for us. For this reason, weare shifting to more sophisticated technologies using optical fibers and computers in place of only conventional cutouts and switches.”
Naoki Hirota, Manager of the Distribution Division’s Planning Department, remarks that the utility environment is also changing and becoming more open, making it that much easier for international suppliers such as NGK to offer their distribution-oriented products and systems from factories located throughout the world. NGK’s Distribution System Division already accounts for a relatively large segment of the overall Power Business Group. Although up to now the major part of this business was for domestic users only, due to this freer trade environment Sogo and Hirota now see more opportunities than ever before to extend the Division’s activities to overseas markets as well.
