Camille Bauer Metrawatt: Power-quality analysers, power monitors and transducers from Switzerland

Overview

Camille Bauer Metrawatt traces its origins to 1944, when Matter, Patocchi & Co. AG was founded in Switzerland; the business was later renamed Camille Bauer AG, according to the GMC-Instruments history. The Mannheim-based Röchling Group bought it in 1979, and in 1993 it was brought into the group formed by merging the German instrument makers Gossen and Metrawatt. It has been the Swiss member of what is now the GMC-Instruments group ever since, and took its present name, Camille Bauer Metrawatt AG, from the earlier Camille Bauer AG, as the Swiss commercial register records.

The company builds instruments for heavy-current electrical networks rather than consumption meters for tenants. Its three brands divide the work: LINAX power-quality analysers, SINEAX power monitoring devices, measuring transducers and transmitters, and CENTRAX measurement controllers that add a programmable logic controller to an accurate measuring device. The LINAX PQ device handbook groups SINEAX AM and DM5000, LINAX PQ and CENTRAX CU instruments under one Camille Bauer certificate for encrypted web access, which shows they share a platform.

What sets it apart is certified power-quality measurement. The LINAX PQ3000 and PQ5000 are class A instruments under IEC 61000-4-30 Edition 3, and the PQ1000 class S, certified by the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology METAS. Within its group it sits beside Gossen Metrawatt in Germany and Dranetz in the United States, founded in 1962 and part of the group since 2007.

Offering

LINAX power-quality analysers

The LINAX PQ5000 is a DIN-rail class A analyser, with or without a colour display, that measures five voltage and four current channels from current transformers or Rogowski sensors at 18 kHz, records waveforms and transients to 16 GB, and exports PQDIF, CSV and PDF conformity reports against EN 50160, IEC 61000-2-2, 2-4 and 2-12, IEEE 519 and Chinese GB/T limits. The PQ3000 is the class A panel version in a 144 x 144 mm housing and the PQ1000 a class S unit in 96 x 96 mm. The PQ5000CL and PQ5000CL-Multi PQ are scalable systems that add load-flow information for low-voltage distribution grids, and the PQ5000-Mobile is a portable class A analyser.

SINEAX power monitoring and transducers

The SINEAX AM3000 and AM1000 are panel power monitoring devices for all electrical parameters, in 144 and 96 mm housings; the AM3000 has Ethernet and RS-485 with Modbus and a REST interface, and optional relays, analogue outputs or digital inputs. The SINEAX DM5000 does the same job on a DIN rail, with CT or Rogowski inputs, an optional data logger and an IEC 61850 extension. The SINEAX CAM is a higher-performance measurement system for network state and non-linear loads. Among transducers, the SINEAX DM5S and DM5F map network quantities to analogue DC outputs or Modbus and are programmed with the CB Manager software, and the SINEAX V604s converts DC, temperature and potentiometer signals.

CENTRAX and software

The CENTRAX CU5000 combines a heavy-current measuring device with a freely programmable soft PLC for control tasks in the energy industry. SmartCollect PM20 evaluates the PQDIF recordings and is sold separately. Prices are not published; the GMC-Instruments product selector takes quote requests.

Technology

Measurement method and certification

The LINAX PQ handbook, edition PM 1001608 000 14 of February 2022, classes the PQ3000 and PQ5000 as PQI-A-FI1 instruments under IEC 62586-1 (class A, fixed indoor installation) and the PQ1000 as PQI-S-FI1, with a 200 ms measurement cycle. METAS, an independent accredited laboratory, assessed conformity against IEC 62586-2:2017, the test standard for IEC 61000-4-30, at 120 V 60 Hz and 230 V 50 Hz. The analysers combine statistical evaluation against EN 50160 or a supply contract with event records such as voltage dips. Time is synchronised from an NTP server or GPS.

Interfaces

Every stationary LINAX PQ has Ethernet with Modbus TCP and a web server over HTTP or HTTPS; Modbus RTU over RS-485 is a separate option, and plug-in modules add IEC 61850 or PROFINET. Recorded PQDIF and CSV files can be sent periodically to an SFTP server. The Modbus interface document, edition PM 1001601 000 10, covers device identification, instantaneous values, harmonic, imbalance and power-quality analysis, minimum and maximum values and the last recorded event. Floats are read with function code 03, and the first register of a value carries its lowest 16 bits, so readers that assume high word first will decode them wrongly.

Security

The instruments document more network security than most meters. The handbook describes role-based access control with predefined administrator, local-display and anonymous users and website login, encrypted HTTPS using TLS with a Camille Bauer certificate shared by SINEAX AMx000 and DM5000, LINAX PQx000 and CENTRAX CUx000 devices, a client whitelist that limits access to defined IP addresses, and an audit log sent to a Syslog server over UDP, TCP or TLS. Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP and Syslog are blocked by default and have to be enabled, and the Modbus TCP port can be changed or switched off because port 502 is often blocked at the firewall. Devices ship with a documented default administrator password.

Markets

Camille Bauer's instruments are built for three groups of buyer. Utilities and grid operators use the LINAX analysers to show regulators and customers that supply quality meets EN 50160 or a contract, which is why independent class A certification matters; the handbook frames the results as evidence for regulatory authorities, negotiations with energy suppliers and internal quality control. Distribution network operators use the PQ5000CL systems to add load-flow and power-quality information across low-voltage grids. Industrial sites and plant builders use SINEAX power monitors and transducers to bring electrical values into control systems over Modbus, PROFINET or IEC 61850, or as analogue signals for older PLCs.

Sales run through the GMC-Instruments group, which lists 21 companies in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, China and the United States, alongside distributors. The group's brands page presents Camille Bauer with Gossen Metrawatt, Dranetz, Seaward, Rigel, Kurth Electronic and Prosys, so a buyer of Camille Bauer fixed instruments can source portable power-quality and test equipment from sister brands. Named customers are not published.

Company

Legal entity

The company is Camille Bauer Metrawatt AG, a Swiss joint-stock company with its seat in Wohlen in the canton of Aargau, at Aargauerstrasse 7, 5610 Wohlen, under UID CHE-102.063.650, as the federal register and the Aargau commercial register show. Its registered purpose is the development, production, marketing and sale of measurement, control and information-processing products and systems, and its earlier name was Camille Bauer AG.

Ownership

Camille Bauer has been part of the Gossen Metrawatt group since the 1993 merger, under owners that changed over time: Röchling until new shareholders including investment companies took over in 2005, according to the group history. In February 2023 funds advised by KLAR Partners agreed to take control of GMC-Instruments from its founder and majority shareholder Dr Hans-Peter Opitz, who kept a significant minority stake; the group then reported revenue of about €120 million for 2022 and named renewable energy and electromobility as priority segments. Dr Opitz handed the chief executive role to Joachim Czabanski on 1 July 2023, and the group's management page now names Frederic Michel as chief executive.

People

Johannes Elö became commercial head of Camille Bauer Metrawatt AG in August 2022, the group reported. The subsidiary's own headcount and revenue are not published.