Press Release | Ludvika, Sweden | 12.03.2025 | 2 min read
Five-fold increase of testing capacity for its Modular Advanced Control for HVDC System (MACH™)
New visitors´ center to strengthen customer and partner outreach
Attractive new office workplace accommodating 1,000 people
Hitachi Energy has announced a 700 million SEK investment to further expand its operations in Ludvika, Sweden, with an additional 20,000-sq-m. facility. The factory boasts a long legacy of innovation in manufacturing HVDC systems. The addition will house increased testing capacity for MACHTM control and protection system, co-located office spaces for enhanced collaboration, and a new visitors’ center to strengthen engagement with customers and partners.
Illustration: Krook & Tjäder
Illustration: Krook & Tjäder
Hitachi Energy in Ludvika
Tobias Hansson and Andreas Berthou, Photo: Kim Norman
The new facility will allow Hitachi Energy to scale its testing capacity by five-fold to meet growing customer demands for advanced energy solutions. The new onsite office space will enhance teamwork and operational efficiency among employees, including a good number of the 2,000 additional new hires1 announced in Sweden by 2027, ensuring a more agile and innovative working environment. Additionally, the visitors´ center will provide an immersive experience, showcasing Hitachi Energy’s cutting-edge technologies that support the clean energy transition.
This expansion reinforces Ludvika’s role as a global center of excellence for high-voltage direct current. As the world accelerates the integration of renewables, the demand for our advanced power electronics solutions has never been greater. By boosting our testing capacity and fostering closer collaboration among our experts, we are strengthening our ability to support customers worldwide in building the grid of the future in a key growing market.
I am happy that we are getting another major expansion at the Ludvika site, a unique place where it all started 125 years ago, and which continues to develop and attract employees from all over the world. The expertise and competence found in Ludvika within high-voltage direct current is unique and a point of pride globally.
Showcased by the World Economic Forum2 as a technology that changed the world, HVDC power transmission has been instrumental in efficiently transporting electricity over long distances, integrating renewable energy, and interconnection of asynchronous power systems for more than 70 years. HVDC technology is poised to play a pivotal role in the evolving 2050 power system, completely reshaping how we power our lives.
Hitachi Energy has delivered more than half of the world’s HVDC projects, including the North Sea offshore wind grid connection projects DolWin 1 and 2, the EstLink 1, which enhances power security in the Baltic region and the unified European electricity market with secured reliability and availability as well as the recently inaugurated Caithness-Moray and Shetland project, the first voltage-sourced multi-terminal HVDC interconnection in operation in Europe.
This investment reflects Hitachi Energy’s long-term strategy to strengthen its operations in Ludvika, a vital hub for its global business, and is part of the $6 billion global investment announced in 20243+4. With the additional space and improved infrastructure, the company is well-positioned to accelerate innovation and meet the evolving needs of the energy industry.
Groundbreaking is planned for May 2025, and work is scheduled to be completed in 2027.
Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. We are advancing the world’s energy system to be more sustainable, flexible and secure and we collaborate with customers and partners to enable a sustainable energy future – for today’s generations and those to come. Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and unparalleled installed base in more than 140 countries, serving customers in utility, industry, transportation, data centers and infrastructure sectors. With innovative technologies and services including the integration of more than 150 gigawatts of HVDC links into the power system, we help make the energy value chain more efficient, making electricity more accessible to all. Together with stakeholders across sectors and geographies, we enable the digital transformation required to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ around 45,000 people in 60 countries and generate business volumes of around $13 billion USD.
https://www.hitachienergy.com
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Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society through the use of data and technology. We solve customers' and society's challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products. Hitachi operates under the 3 business sectors of “Digital Systems & Services” – supporting our customers’ digital transformation; “Green Energy & Mobility” – contributing to a decarbonized society through energy and railway systems, and “Connective Industries” – connecting products through digital technology to provide solutions in various industries. Driven by Digital, Green, and Innovation, we aim for growth through co-creation with our customers. The company’s revenues as 3 sectors for fiscal year 2023 (ended March 31, 2024) totaled 8,564.3 billion yen, with 573 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 270,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at https://www.hitachi.com.
