# Hitachi Energy Plans More Than $330 Million Ontario Insulation Plant

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/33667
Published: 2026-10-17T02:39:40.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-17T02:39:40.000Z
Section: Business

> The 21,000-square-meter facility is expected to produce up to 20,000 metric tonnes of insulation materials annually and create more than 100 skilled jobs.

Hitachi Energy plans to invest more than $330 million in a transformer-insulation factory in London, Ontario, bringing electrical-grade pressboard production to Canada and adding capacity for manufacturers in North America and global markets. The company announced the project Friday, Oct. 16, and expects the facility to be completed by 2028.

The planned 21,000-square-meter factory would make up to 20,000 metric tonnes of electrical-grade pressboard and laminated insulation materials each year. Pressboard insulates components inside high-voltage transformers and supports their cooling process.

The project would bring pressboard production to Canada and mark Hitachi Energy’s first such operation in the Americas. Production is expected to supply the company’s transformer operations in Varennes, Quebec, along with other transformer and insulation manufacturers in North America and worldwide.

Hitachi Energy expects the factory to create more than 100 permanent skilled jobs. It is planned for London’s Huron Industrial Park.

The federal government announced support through the Strategic Response Fund and the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program. Ontario offered support through the Invest Ontario Fund, conditional on a definitive funding agreement.

Electricity demand is being driven by grid modernization, electrification, renewable-energy deployment and data-center expansion. The factory is intended to add manufacturing capacity for materials used in high-voltage transformers, which are part of electricity systems.

Helmut Bockshammer, Hitachi Energy’s global product group manager for insulation and components in its Transformers business, said the project would “help address one of the most critical bottlenecks in transformer manufacturing.” Hitachi Energy has tied the London project to a broader North American supply-chain investment program exceeding $2 billion over the period ending in 2027.