Hitachi Energy will build a $457 million transformer production facility in South Boston, Virginia, and make more than $500 million in other investments to meet the growing need for U.S. grid equipment, the company, state officials and the Trump administration announced Thursday.
The investment comes as lead times for utilities to procure transformers have stretched from weeks to years, as grid expansion and a shortage of manufacturing capacity have created a bottleneck. In particular, large transformers like the ones Hitachi will make in Virginia can now take up to three years from order to delivery, experts say.
“Bringing production of large power transformers to the U.S. is critical to building a strong domestic supply chain for the U.S. economy and reducing production bottlenecks, which is essential as demand for these transformers across the economy is surging,” Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO of Hitachi Energy, said in a statement.
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