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General information

    The Department of Power Systems and Electric Drives was established in the academic year 1955/56 as the Department of Electric Traction and Energetics with the Railway University in Prague. Prof. Dr. Ing. František Jansa, DrSc. was the head of the Department since its establishment up till 1974 followed by Prof. Ing. Karel Horák, DrSc. since 1974 till 1984, Prof. Ing. Imrich Solík, DrSc., since 1985 till 1992, and Doc. Ing. Juraj Altus, PhD. being the head of the Department since 1992 till now.

The Department is a part of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and one of its three profile departments since 1992. The Department has an accreditation for MSc. degree diploma study in Electric Traction and Energetics. The graduates were formerly trained mainly for Czech and Slovak Railways, for industrial plants producing electric traction equipment (Škoda Plzeň, ČKD Trakce Praha, ŽOS Nymburk, ŽOS Vrútky), for both urban and industrial transport and for the scientific and research laboratories in the electrotechnical industry.

The highly important period for the Department had been during years 1991 - 1994. In those years, a TEMPUS project JEP - 1939/91 - 94 had been accepted and realised. The project titled "Improvement of Educational Activities in Power Electronics and its Applications" substantially affected the next movement of the Department. The aims of the project were: the creation of a new curricula for Power Electronics, Electric Drives and Electrical Machines, setting up new laboratories, purchase of computation and measuring hardware, mobility of students and the staff. The universities in Catania, Roma, London and Helsinki cooperated in this project. Results of the project pushed the Department forward in its effort to become a modern department with a high level educational programme. The Department participated in the two-years lasted TEMPUS project JEN-01939SQ-94 since 1.1.1995 till 31.12.1996 representing a logical continuation of the project mentioned above.

After all these changes in last years, educational and research activities of the Department became more widely and professionally oriented and covers many fields within the electrical power engineering branch. Today's departmental graduates are well accepted by many different enterprises, ranging from computer firms over the various electric hardware producers up to electric energy and transport companies. The same range of enterprises as well as Slovak and foreign universities and research institutes cooperate with the staff and students of the Department today.

In the academic year 1998/99, the Department started an inter-disciplinary MSc. degree course in "Information Systems in Energetics" in cooperation with the Department of Information and Safety Systems. The aim of the course is the preparation of graduates focused to the informatics and modern data control, transmission and processing in energetics.

According to the general orientation, Department requested for accreditation for new field of: “Power electronics systems”. After successfully accreditation the Department has followed accredited specializations within the frame of this fields of:

  • Electroenergetics

  • Power electronics

  • Electric Drives

  • Electric Traction Since

1997 the Department has an accreditation for PhD. degree study in "Power Electrotechnics" with the following branches:

  • Electric Drives

  • Power Electronics

  • Electric Machines and Apparatus

  • Electric Traction

The appointed chairman of the Slovak committee for PhD. degree study in Power Electrotechnics at EF ŽU is Ján Vittek, Dpt. member.

 The Department had collaborated intensively with the ABB Company. In 2000, Laboratory of Electric Substations was built up with the help of ABB. It is equipped by the technology produced by the ABB plants in Czech Republic, Germany, Finland and Italy.

The Department of Electric Traction and Energetic had been educating a lot of specialists for all areas of national economy during these last forty-seven years of its existence. Scope of study requirements and customers demands to our graduates had been changing in elapsed years. Requirements of practice put a pressure on changes in our curriculum that would make our graduates more competitive at the job market. Scope of study, pedagogues, name and the department structure showed needs of adaptations for new time requirements. Hence the Dpt. name was changed onto Dpt. of Power Electrotechnical Systems in 2003. We hope that the Department will continue in successful education of Bachelors, Masters of Sciences and Doctoral-graduates like before.