Power Research Electronics B.V. 30 years of innovation

Jan Wanner founded Power Research Electronics in 1984. Wanner started his career at Philips Telecom Hilversum. After this he worked at KRP and Blessing. In 1988, PRE became a BV (Ltd). The company did a lot of development work for companies such as Mastervolt, where Jos Schijffelen and Menno Kardolus worked at the time. They decided to buy out Jan and take over PRE in 2002. Soon after, Mark Groninger and Erik van Beusekom joined PRE and LEDdriven. The latter was founded in 2012.
Power Research Electronics is currently called PRE. ‘Power Developers’ was added to show the innovative power. In recent years, the company has been growing fast and currently there are 65 employees in two locations: Breda and Moldavia. The future of PRE and its daughter LEDdriven look bright.

Strong growth

The strong growth of PRE is shown by their business location. In 2002, PRE was located in an old post office in Dorst. The 4 staff members worked in a building of 538 square feet. The current building in Breda is over 17,000 square feet and offers work space to 35 employees. Besides development and administrative work, part of the production takes place in this building as well. In Moldavia PRE’s spinoff Blacksea-EMS Srl currently employs 30 people. Blacksea-EMS is specialised in the production of Charger Modules and LED drivers.

Changing the business model

Changing the business model is part of the strong growth the company has seen. In the past, Phillips, for example, hired the power electronic specialists at PRE to develop for them. Knowledge and experience of the new team made it possible to produce and deliver products on a larger scale. PRE takes responsibility for the development of the product from start to finish.
Furthermore, IP is becoming more important. PRE tries to protect their innovative ideas with patents.

LEDdriven started as an idea in 2010. In 2012, LEDdriven became incorporated. This spinoff company’s goal is to manage LEDs. They have already developed several innovative lamp-concepts, in which the integral design of the driver and the lamp are pivotal. Often this leads to very beautiful solutions for the client. LEDdriven’s strong points are outdoor and industrial lighting. More often than not this leads to projects where Light-as-a-service is offered.

EV Charging Solutions

As of 2009, PRE is also active in the market for charging electrical vehicles. This appears to have been a smart move. PRE develops and produces power modules for companies that create charging stations and charging poles. A big part of the DC (fast)charging stations in Europe contains power module technology, developed by PRE. Currently, PRE offers a complete package of power modules: from DC fast charging from the grid and DC charging from a battery to V2X (bi directional) charging. The default products can also be custom made for clients’ wishes. The own products have been an important reason to build the own production facility in Moldova. PRE has developed into an important OEM technology supplier for the industry by creating their own product portfolio and production facility. However, the focus will remain on supplying our customers with the best products.

The future

The future is shining brightly for PRE. The company has been focussing on electronic transport and renewable energy in the last couple of years. The company expects that a lot of changes will occur in these markets in the coming years. PRE wants to make a difference in here by groundbreaking innovations. PRE’s own engineers create these innovations together with several universities. PRE expects that the productive cooperation between them and the universities will be intensified. In the last 30 years PRE grew organically, however, everything is ready to grow further. PRE’s goal has always been and will remain to be an innovative and reliable technology partner for OEM’s and service providers in the renewable energy market.