London to get Canada’s first transformer pressboard plant

Hitachi Energy Canada plans to build a $479-million transformer insulation facility in London’s Huron Industrial Park. The facility is expected to be completed by 2028 and create more than 100 jobs.

• It will be Canada’s first pressboard manufacturing line of its kind.
• The 21,000-square-metre facility is designed to produce up to 20,000 tonnes of material each year.
• Ontario is providing up to $20 million. The federal government is contributing $30 million through two programs.

The project is intended to increase domestic production of a material used in transformers and strengthen the supply chain as electricity demand grows.