Hitachi Energy has announced plans to establish a new $10 million Power Electronics Center of Competence in Cary, North Carolina, underscoring its commitment to strengthening the North American power grid.
The 32,000?square?foot, state?of?the?art facility set to open in the fall of 2026 will create 150 new jobs and expand the company’s local engineering, testing, and system integration capabilities.
The new center will accelerate the delivery of solutions that help utilities and developers meet the region’s rapidly growing electricity demand.
The investment was unveiled during an on?site event with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who joined company leaders to mark construction progress and discuss upcoming workforce development and hiring plans. The visit highlighted the increasing strategic importance of building domestic power electronics expertise to deliver reliable power faster and more affordably.
This expansion forms part of Hitachi Energy’s historic $1 billion U.S. manufacturing investment announced in 2025, which includes upgrades across multiple sites and a new large power transformer factory in South Boston, Virginia.
It also complements the company’s strengthened service capabilities through its investment in Shermco, strengthening U.S. supply chains and enabling faster, higher?quality support for customers. Together, these initiatives deepen local production capacity and reinforce energy security at a time when reliable grid performance is critical to economic growth.
Across North America, the energy landscape is shifting swiftly. Surging AI data center growth, industrial electrification, integration of renewable sources, and population increases are putting unprecedented pressure on the grid. According to recent studies, U.S. electricity demand is projected to rise 35-50 percent by 2040, while Canada’s demand could climb 62 percent by 2050 a region-wide transformation in how power is produced and consumed.
The new Power Electronics Center will bring specialized expertise and advanced operations together under one roof, fostering a highly skilled local workforce close to key customers. By localizing design, testing, and deployment of standardized, modular solutions, it will help utilities scale capacity faster, reduce congestion, stabilize voltage, and improve grid safety and reliability.
Beyond power systems innovation, the center will also serve as Hitachi Energy’s global hub for advanced cybersecurity.
It will help protect critical infrastructure through secure?by?design architectures, continuous monitoring, and rapid response systems, fortifying the convergence of IT and OT environments. Combined with its expertise in power quality, HVDC, and grid stabilization, the center positions Hitachi Energy to help utilities modernize infrastructure with both resilience and security at the core.
Leadership Comment
Marco Berardi, SVP and Head of Grid & Power Quality Solutions and Service
Hitachi Energy, “The Center will support Hitachi Energy’s power electronics technologies, including STATCOMs, Fixed Series Compensation (FSC), Synchronous Condenser Systems (SCS), and advanced grid control devices. These solutions enable customers to increase transmission capacity without building new power lines, while enhancing the stability and resilience of large, complex electrical networks.”
