Kauno energetikos remontas

SUCCESS STORY

Kauno Energetikos Remontas: 60 Years

of Experience and Knowledge

Founded six decades ago in Lithuania’s second largest city, Kaunas, the company Kauno Energetikos Remontas (KER) is not only one of the oldest but also one of the most important and largest energy sector companies in the Baltic states.

By Kæstutis Kazlauskas

“Energy is an industrial area requiring special accuracy and responsibility. A small detail gone wrong may mean not only major deficiency that would cause us financial damage but also painful tragedies and accidents in the future. Therefore, the expertise, reliability and honesty of our specialists are valued around the world. We export around 15 per cent of our products”, proudly states the company’s General Director Albertas Kazys Navickas, who has been with KER since 1976.

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Having earned customers’ trust through its work, Kauno Energetikos Remontas reconstructs and builds energy objects, builds and installs 330 kV substations and switchyards.

It performs diagnostics, modernization, repairs and installation of power machinery and manufactures their spare parts as well as containers of various sizes, metal structures for construction organizations and industrial enterprises.

The company prepares power machinery repair plans, consults on the issues of power machinery repairs, performs technical maintenance and provides laboratory research services.

KER has the Boiler Department, Turbine Department, Electrical Equipment Department, and Mechanical Department; Non-Destructive Testing Laboratory, Mechanical Testing Laboratory, High-tension Laboratory, Chemical Laboratory, and Metrological Laboratory; Metal and Welding Research Centre, Welding Department, etc.

In cooperation with Germany’s SLV Welding Institute, UAB Kauno Energetikos Remontas established a training centre for welders. The training and certification centre, equipped in compliance with European Union standards, trains specialists who area able to perform welding using all possible methods. The training centre not only trains welders but also certifies them with experts from a notified body participating. In addition, it drafts technological instructions on repair welding as well as welding procedure descriptions. The centre also organizes training courses for welding supervision experts.

Having reached a turnover of LTL 40 million last year, the company plans to boost it to LTL 58 million in 2007.

To ensure work and service quality, implementation of new technologies and improvement of work efficiency, the company makes investments of several million litas annually. The estimated investment for 2007 is around LTL 4.5 million.

Successful adjustment to market conditions Before the restoration of Lithuania’s independence in 1990, Kauno Energetikos Remontas provided its services to the north western part of the Soviet Union, including

SUCCESS STORY the nuclear plants of Ignalina, Leningrad and Smolensk.

At that time, the company employed 2,800 specialists.

With the country’s independence the staff and the output significantly declined, however the invaluable experience was retained.

Appointed general director of Kauno Energetikos Remontas at that difficult time (in 1991), Mr Navickas is happy about the fact that the company managed to survive and retain the core of its specialists, to adapt to the new conditions on the market, to develop new products and to expand the range of provided services.

KER specialists took up the repairs of locomotive traction motors, transformers’ bushings of up to 330 kV, power transformers, seagoing vessel boilers and other power equipment and began the reconstruction and construction of substations as well as switchyards of up to 330 kV. It undertook the manufacture of new products, including 10-630 kVA hermetic transformers, panels of heat transfer surfaces, pressure vessels, different types of containers, fuel storages, metal structures for construction work, and 16 MW boiler furnaces using biofuel.

“We now work all year round. When cold weather prevents us from repairing power stations, we work on other orders. Our customers include Lithuanian and foreign hydro-power plants, thermal and nuclear power stations, industrial enterprises, electricity and heat networks as well as construction companies”, says Mr Navickas, who devotes major attention to good working conditions and safety.

Regular winner of competitions Kauno Energetikos Remontas constantly receives numerous compliments, letters of gratitude and awards from a variety of competitions, specialists, and highest-ranking government officials. The latest award went to its 16 MW “boiling layer” biofuel furnace. It received the Gold Medal of the Lithuanian Product of the Year 2006 competition organized by the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists.

Ordered by Axis Industries, the “boiling layer” furnace is one of the latest and largest 16 MW biofuel furnaces made in Lithuania, intended

for a biofuel boiler with a capacity of 25 t/h, 25 bar. These furnaces are produced for export to East European states.

Currently, the company has a staff of 650. Experiencing the shortage of qualified workers, characteristic of Lithuanian industrial companies, KER trains the necessary specialists on its own by paying for their studies in Lithuanian, German and Russian universities. 

Kauno Energetikos Remontas Chemijos st. 17, LT-51331, Kaunas Ph.: +370-37 456702 Fax +370-37 452948 E-mail: ker@ker.lt www.ker.lt

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