Klaus-Peter Brand was born 1948 in Neustadt a.d. Aisch, Germany. From 1967, he studied physics and mathematics in Germany at the Universities Würzburg, Kiel and Bonn. In Bonn, he got 1972 his Master in Physics (Dipl. Phys.) and 1976 his PhD (Dr.rer.nat.) in Physics by a work about Interstellar Plasma Physics.

From 1976 to 1982 he worked in the former Brown Boveri Research Center in Baden, Switzerland in the area of SF₆ plasma physics. The aim was the understanding of the SF6 arc in high voltage breakers, especially its dielectric recovery after the switching arc used for power interruption. Additionally tasks have been the distortion of the electric filed in the arcs and nearby because of space charges from ions and electrons of the decomposed SF6. This work was complemented by a general overview over the dielectric properties of gases and the resulting absolute superiority of SF₆. – As side effect, he introduced the on-line literature search facilities in the Research center.

From 1982 to 1988 he worked as Senior Engineer in the department for “power System Analysis” of former BBC, Baden, Switzerland. He calculated load flows and electromagnetic transients in the power network by EMTP. This work was interrupted very often being a member in different tasks forces and working groups within the company.

The most important membership was in the development team for the introduction of microprocessors in substations, i.e. for “Substation Automation”. He was co-author of the Function Specification and Engineering Specification, and co-designer for the system architecture.  As result he got member in the pilot project for Substation Automation of an 800 kV GIS substation erected in South Africa. On result of this project was the joint invention and application of “Topology Interlocking”. As side effect, he was a co-developer of an ultra-fast directional protection system program with function blocks.

Less time consuming but also very important in the context of substations was the co-editing of the company owned Handbook for Electromagnetic Compatibility.

After the merger of ASEA and BBC to ABB, he was from 1998 to 1995 in different positions in the team responsible for the introduction of substation automation (SA) as business in the former ABB Relays, Baden, Switzerland. The tasks have been the building up of the engineering resort, the support of sales in front of customers and contributions to the design and realization of pilot projects. He was in charge of deputy of head of the department. As SA product manager was he locally coordinating the business and as chairman of the market requirement specification group responsible for founding the next generation of substation automation within ABB globally.

After the extension of ABB Relays to ABB Network Partner he was as so-called Panorama Product Manager responsible from 1995 to 1999 for the technically coordination of the complete product management. This activity was allocated to the Marketing Department. Highlights have been the successful description of the product management process for the ISO Certification, the sales support of complex projects, and the first introduction of Internet as marketing tool in ABB.

A new chapter of Klaus-Peter Brand’s activities was opened by the start of active work in International Bodies like CIGRE (member in the study committee SC 34, today B5) and IEC (Technical Committee 57, Power System communication). The first one set up some basic requirements for communication in substations, the second one started to define new working groups to standardize this communication. The related working groups started their activities in 1996.

In 2000, by restructuring the company, the Panorama Product Management was dissolved, and he moved to the newly founded ABB University Switzerland performing and developing courses mainly in Power networks, Electromagnetic compatibility, Substation automation and Communication. In addition, he is responsible for some business processes resulting in the development of the new curriculum for Project managers.   

Nevertheless, the main activities are dedicated to the development, finalization, and supporting the introduction of the standard IEC 61850 “Communication Networks and Systems in Substations”. He is member of IEC TC57 WG10 and the JTF for IEC 61850-10, and member of the editor team as editor of part IEC61850-5 and Co-editor of IEC61850-7-4. In TK57, the Swiss National Mirror Committee of TC57, he keeps with other colleagues the mutual links and is involved in the voting process. 

Besides his membership in IEC, Klaus-Peter Brand is member in different professional organizations like in CIGRE, ElectroSuisse, and Senior Member of IEEE. He is (co-) holder of more then 5 patents and (co-) author of more the 40 publications.

Volker Lohmann was born 1940 in Mülheim-Ruhr, Germany and studied Electrical Engineering at the Rheinisches Politechnikum Düsseldorf, Germany. He gained his professional experience from more than 30 years of working with Brown Boveri Cie (BBC) and ABB Switzerland in various management positions and fields related to high voltage (HV) substations, HV circuit breakers (CB), gas insulated switchgear (GIS) and substation automation (SA). He started his career 1965 with research in the application of HV power electronics for High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) and variable speed drives. After several years in research he moved into the sales and marketing organization for HV circuit breaker and gas insulated switchgear (GIS) as sales and project manager. The world first 800 kV GIS project offered him in 1982 as project manager the opportunity to initiated the development and implementation of the first BBC microprocessor based substation control system (SCS). His coauthors were member of the project team.

In the course of the merger between BBC, Switzerland and ASEA, Sweden, in 1987 he became in charge of the product management for SCS and protection and was involved in the development of a multi-functional and software library based platform for intelligent electronic devices (IED) for control, protection and monitoring of HV substations. In 1995 he became member of the ABB Business Area Management Team for SA and protection and was world-wide responsible for the product management and strategic marketing of SA systems. He retired in 2002 and started his own company for Utility Automation Consulting, which is now presented by his daughter Sabine Schuhmacher-Lohmann. Volker Lohmann died on September 1st, 2011.

Wolfgang Wimmer was born 1947 in Bad Schwartau, Northern Germany. He studied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Hamburg, where he also promoted in Computer Science about Deadlocks in Communication networks. After five years working for  the Deutsches Elektronensynchroton in Hamburg, where he wrote compilers and implemented the base software for a packet switching network, he moved to Brown Boveri & Cie (BBC) in Baden/Switzerland,.

There he started with design and implementation of a train control systems and became member of the technical committee TC7 “Safety and Reliability” of the European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems (EWICS). He was further involved with the design of engineering systems for remte terminal units (RTU) and Network Control Systems, During this time, he was also member of the IEC technical committee TC65 to develop the standard IEC 61508 “Safety in Industrial Electronic Systems”.

His involvement in substation automation started in 1983 with participation in the development of a topology based interlocking program, and continued with the introduction of microprocessor based control systems for the substation automation business. After the merger of BBC with Asea in 1997, he continued with these activities in the new company ABB with focus on engineering processes and tools. He is currently occupied with the development of substation automation and monitoring systems at ABB/ Switzerland, and he is member of the IEC TC57 working group WG11 as editor of the upcoming standard IEC 61850 for Communication in Substations, part 6.