Siemens AG, the global technology conglomerate that today has headquarters in both Berlin and Munich, in May 2019 announced it will spin o its energy units to focus on its digital “core.” The news has stunned many in the power sector, where Siemens has clenched a formidable presence since 1866. But restructuring at Siemens is nothing new. Restructuring milestones are marked in green. Source: Siemens AG —Copy and artwork by Sonal Patel, a POWER associate editor. 1919 Despite losing 40% 1949 Munich becomes of its capital and most of its the headquarters city for 1969 Siemens 1998 Siemens acquires 2010 Siemens delivers the 1847 German inventor subsidiaries and aliated Siemens & Halske and restructures its businesses Westinghouse’s gas turbine world's largest, most-power- Werner von Siemens lays the companies during the war Erlangen the headquarters into six largely autonomous business. ful 800-kV converter foundation for an enterprise and in its aftermath, Siemens for Siemens Schuckertwerke. operating groups: transformer, intended for a with his design for the re-emerges as one of the components; data systems; 2000 Siemens’ rst 501FD Chinese HVDC transmission pointer telegraph. world’s ve leading electrical 1949 Siemens develops power engineering; electrical gas turbine is developed in segment. engineering companies. its rst experimental gas installations; telecommuni- Orlando. Siemens, which has 1856 Now known as turbine, the VM1. cations; and the medical 2011 built all 17 of Germany’s “Siemens & Halske,” the Siemens takes on engineering group. 2001 Siemens 1920 nuclear plants, announces it company primarily builds shares of Deutsche Siemens begins to restructures its reactor-mak- 1950s will quit the nuclear business telegraph lines and has a Gasglühlicht AG to form rebuild with a renewed Research at a small ing arm and combines its 1974 as Germany embarks on a workforce of 330 employees. OSRAM, expanding into the international focus. Large reactor in Munich allows nuclear activities with French nuclear phaseout. incandescent lamp business. contracts, such as the Siemens to build its rst company Framatome, 1866 von Siemens 300-MW San Nicolás plant in nuclear plant, the 660-MW forming AREVA NP. Joe Kaeser, Siemens discovers the dynamo-elec- Siemens-Schuckert- Argentina, the national Stade nuclear plant. Two 2014 1924 Siemens acquires AG’s current CEO, unveils a tric principle and builds a werke signs an agreement telecommunications years later, it puts online the 2004 Bonus Energy A/S, a wind long-term plan for the dynamo, which becomes with Westinghouse for the network in Saudi Arabia, and 1.2-GW Unit A at the Biblis energy company founded in company: Vision 2020. It calls ready for series production “regular exchange of patents a steel mill for India enlarge nuclear plant. Denmark in 1980, which on Siemens to focus on by 1875. and knowhow,” marking the Siemens’ export business already has an installed base electri cation, automation, start of a long partnership. substantially. Siemens initiates 1975 and digitalization. Divisions 1890 Siemens & Halske the world's rst thyristor-op- of 3.3 GW in 20 countries. now has 6,500 employees, shrink from 16 to 10. Siemens starts up 1953 Siemens develops erated long-distance HVDC and it is synonymous with 1927 Siemens banks on the rst commercial Benson and patents a technique to transmission system, 2005 electrical engineering. “megatrends” to drive boiler plant at the Gartenfeld make ultra-pure silicon for between the Cabora Bassa 2014 Siemens acquires business with a speci c focus cable plant in Berlin. semiconductor power plant, in what is now Rolls-Royce’s aeroderivative on energy, the environment, 1895 Siemens & Halske applications—another Mozambique and the gas turbine and compressor automation, infrastructure, builds South Africa’s rst innovation that revolutioniz- Republic of South Africa. businesses. 1929 Siemens-Schuckert- and healthcare. power plant, a three-phase werke completes es electrical engineering. It Siemens buys plant using generators that electri cation of the Irish also forays into the data 1980 Siemens, which has 2015 A compliance Dresser-Rand for $7.8 billion. were one of the largest of Free State, whose main processing market. focused on microelectronics 2006 investigation forces Siemens Headquarters of the Energy their day. power source is the since the 1960s, makes a to pay penalites of €1.2 unit, headed by Lisa Davis, Siemens-built Ardnacrusha 1957 Siemens rolls out its successful debut in billion and prompts a are relocated to the U.S. 1897 Siemens & Halske hydroelectric power plant. VM3 gas turbine with a digitalizing telephone becomes a stock corpora- recuperator. technology. widespread executive tion. 1930 Siemens introduces shakeup. 2016 Siemens introduces MindSphere, the a uid circuit breaker that Siemens begins Siemens launches 1958 1984 cloud-based operating 1903 Siemens & Halske used water as the arc work on construction of a the MEGA project to advance 2007 Siemens acquires system for the Internet of merges with major quenching medium. 5.6-MW gas turbine for development of chips. UGS Corp., a specialist in Things. Nuremberg-based power commercial operation on digital product data management, computer plant builder Elektrizitäts-Ak- 1931 Siemens-Schuckert- blast-furnace gas. Acknowledging it Siemens and 1989 assisted design, and 2017 tiengesellschaft vorm. werke starts up the 228-MW has become “too sprawling” Gamesa merge their wind production process Schuckert & Co. (EAG), Kraftwerk West plant, its rst Siemens introduces to manage eciently, businesses, boasting a 1958 simulation, propelling forming the power project at the SIMATIC, the rst transistor- Siemens restructures again, 90-country portfolio for Siemens’ digital capabilities. Siemens-Schuckertwerke expansive Berlin site, ized control system. carving its eight units into 15 onshore and oshore wind GmbH division, which is Siemensstadt. new, leaner units, two and related services. Siemens Wind active in the high-voltage operating groups, and two 2007 1959 Siemens receives its opens its rst wind turbine system market. 1932 Siemens bundles its independent divisions. Units 2018 Kaeser initiates 1924-acquired majority stake rst order for construction of blade factory in Iowa. a gas turbine, the VM80. It include power generation, Vision 2020+. It incorporates Siemens & Halske in medical technology 1905 begins commercial power transmission and all divisions into three establishes a “central” company Reiniger, Gebbert 2008 Siemens operation in 1961. distribution, and industrial operating companies and laboratory; it is built around & Schall to form and building systems. restructures again, three strategic companies. 1916. Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG. regrouping its 10 groups into The energy businesses—in- Siemens introduces 1964 Siemens hands over three sectors, and 15 cluding oil and gas, a 220-kV SF6 high-voltage 1993 1914 Siemens & Halske World War II the 704-MW Rye House divisions. The energy sector transmission, power circuit breaker. consolidates nearly all Siemens’ revenue soars combined cycle power plant concentrates on energy generation, and distributed manufacturing operations, during the strong wartime in England, a project widely companies in oil and gas, energy—fall under the Gas centering them at a Berlin economy, but it restricts 1966 Siemens & Halske cited as a success for the and it includes power and Power company, which suburb that becomes known military manufacturing AG, Siemens Schuckertwerke emerging power generating generation and power is headed by Davis. as “Siemensstadt” (Siemens activities to electrical goods. AG, and Siemens-Reini- technology. transmission and City). But labor shortages soon ger-Werke AG are distribution. consolidated to form 2019 Marking the end of prompt the company to use Contending with a Siemens AG. “Greater needs 1998 Siemens completes an era for the company’s World War I forced labor to maintain number of missteps, 2009 for capital investments, a trial run of the SGT5-8000H long and substantial stake in Siemens adds military production levels. The air war Siemens’ pro ts for power especially in the relatively at Bavaria’s Irsching 4 power the energy business, equipment to its electrical damages facilities and plant equipment and other new elds of semiconduc- plant. The gas plant is nally Siemens moves to spin o engineering portfolio, and it disrupts operations. After the units slumps. In another tors and computer commissioned in 2011, and give up its majority stake expands into airplane and war, the Soviet army extensive restructuring, the technology, made it achieving a then-record in the lucrative Gas and engine development. dismantles all inventory, company moves to retain indispensable for the entire eciency of 60.75%. Power company and transfer stock, goods, and con scates only businesses in which it is company to run under a its current majority 59% technical documentation. rst or second in the global stake in Siemens-Gamesa to single management,” it said. Siemens sheds its Siemens forfeits 80% of its market. 2009 the new business in 2020. total worth. 34% stake in AREVA NP.