Hitachi Energy: CAD 479m Ontario Insulation Plant

Hitachi Energy says it “will invest $479 million CAD (more than $330 million USD)” in a new Transformer Insulation Factory in London, Ontario, Canada. The press release is dated 16 October 2026 and datelined London, Ontario.

The plant will make electrical insulation pressboard and laminates used in transformers. It is not a factory that builds finished transformers. Hitachi Energy calls the investment part of its insulation and components business in North America, and says the materials are “critical to transformer production and operation.”

What is being built

Hitachi Energy plans a “21,000-square-meter” facility, “Expected to be completed by 2028,” and “expected to create over 100 permanent skilled jobs.” The release says it will feature “Canada’s first pressboard manufacturing line and Hitachi Energy’s first in the Americas,” bringing production of that insulation material “closer to the North American market.”

Pressboard, the company writes, “enables compact, safe, and cost-effective transformer designs while providing critical electrical insulation and supporting the cooling process within transformers.” Longevity and performance “depend heavily on the quality and consistency of these materials.”

Public funding

In support of the project, the release lists:

Government of Canada: $20 million CAD through the Strategic Response Fund (SRF)
Government of Ontario: “up to $20 million CAD” through the Invest Ontario Fund
Natural Resources Canada: “an additional $10 million CAD” to Hitachi Energy Canada Inc.

Quotes from Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, and Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli appear in the release framing grid capacity, forest-product use (pulp) and Ontario manufacturing — those are political statements on the same company page, not independent audits of the project.

Why Hitachi Energy says the plant matters

Electricity demand in Canada is rising, the release says, “as new industrial projects, AI and data centres, expanding communities, and electrification place greater demands on the power system.” Transformers remain constrained globally in part by “limited availability of the specialized insulation materials required for transformer production.”

Helmut Bockshammer, titled in the release as Global Product Group Manager for Insulation & Components, Business Unit Transformers at Hitachi Energy, says the factory will “help address one of the most critical bottlenecks in transformer manufacturing.”

Carla Vicente, Managing Country Director, Hitachi Energy Canada, links the project to Canada’s National Electricity Strategy ambition “to double the capacity of the country’s electricity grid by 2050.”

Part of a larger North American spend

The London, Ontario plant is “part of Hitachi Energy’s commitment to invest more than $2 billion USD to bolster the North American supply chain through 2027.” Recent Canadian moves named in the same release include the acquisition of London-based Canduct (transformer insulation kits and components) and “a $270-million Canadian expansion to nearly triple large power transformer production capacity in Varennes, Quebec.”

That Varennes line is about transformer production capacity; the new London facility is about insulation pressboard and laminates. Keep the two distinct.

Why it matters for AI infrastructure readers

TSN covers power-equipment bottlenecks because AI and data-centre load is one of the demand drivers companies now put in press releases. Related posts: Hitachi Energy’s MoU with Ansaldo Energia on integrated generation and grid packages, including for data centres, and LS Electric’s Bloom Energy order for a Pennsylvania data centre. An insulation-materials plant does not by itself add megawatts — it aims to ease a supply constraint upstream of transformers that those loads still need.

What’s still unknown

Exact start of construction and commissioning milestones before the 2028 completion target
How much of output is reserved for Hitachi Energy’s own transformer plants versus third-party customers
Whether Ontario’s “up to” CAD 20m support is fully drawn
Measured impact on transformer lead times (not claimed numerically in the release)

What this means

Hitachi Energy is putting CAD 479m (more than USD 330m) into a London, Ontario factory for transformer insulation pressboard and laminates — Canada’s first such pressboard line, due by 2028, with over 100 permanent skilled jobs expected — framed explicitly against AI and data-centre electricity demand and a wider USD 2bn+ North American supply-chain push through 2027. It makes insulation materials, not transformers.