Eaton is investing more than $500 million in its North American manufacturing to meet rapidly increasing demand for the company’s electrical solutions across utility, commercial, data center, healthcare, industrial, and residential markets. (Photo: Business Wire)
The company said its investments will support electrification, energy transition, and digitalization across industries.
CLEVELAND—Intelligent power management company Eaton recently announced significant investments, totaling more than $500 million, in its North American manufacturing and operations to support rapidly growing demand for its electrical products and services.
Eaton is “expanding manufacturing and bolstering resilience to increase the supply of its solutions for customers in utility, commercial, healthcare, industrial and residential markets across North America,” the company said in a release, adding that “the majority of the investments will be complete in 2024 and 2025.”
“Electrical infrastructure has to work harder and smarter to accelerate decarbonization and electrification,” said Mike Yelton, president, Americas Region, Electrical Sector at Eaton, in the release. “At Eaton, we’re all in on the energy transition, and our solutions are essential to reinvent the way power is distributed, stored and consumed. We’re making steady investments for our customers, distributors, and employees to meet growing demand in the Americas, and there will be more to come.”
Eaton’s investments in Texas and Wisconsin are intended to increase U.S. manufacturing of essential utility products to advance electrification, grid modernization, and energy resilience.
The company is adding 200,000 square feet to its Nacogdoches, Texas manufacturing facility, more than doubling its size. The project will double production capacity of Eaton’s voltage regulators to help utility customers across North America accelerate grid modernization and resilience projects. Eaton will continue to produce single-phase, pole-mount and pad-mount transformers in Texas to address the acute supply shortage for these products. The expansion will create more than 200 skilled manufacturing jobs, the company said.
The Texas expansion frees up capacity at the company’s largest Wisconsin manufacturing facility in Waukesha, where Eaton is investing in equipment to increase manufacturing of three-phase transformers for utility, data center, large commercial, and industrial applications. Eaton said it will continue to produce regulators, including complex pole and substation voltage regulators, for utility customers in Wisconsin.
At its South Carolina facility, Eaton is increasing production of busway products to meet rapidly growing demand for this power distribution technology used in commercial, industrial, and fleet charging applications. This expansion includes Eaton’s EV charging busway, described in the release as “an industry-first innovation that dramatically simplifies and expedites infrastructure for fleet charging, while avoiding major infrastructure modifications.”
Eaton is also increasing the manufacturing of its circuit breakers and metering for homes and commercial buildings. The company said these investments include expanding capacity and diversifying production across various locations in the Americas region to increase the supply of its solutions for customers, enhance supply chain efficiency, and boost manufacturing resilience.
Eaton also said it is adding capacity to increase supplies of essential power distribution equipment to support infrastructure projects across industries. The company’s most recent investments enhance its manufacturing facilities for switchgear and switchboards, which provide the power backbone for customers across the Americas.
The company is also investing in the distribution capacity for its power quality products and connectivity solutions. Eaton recently opened its largest regional distribution center in Chicago and is expanding its distribution facility in Dallas to serve commercial, data center, industrial, healthcare, and communications customers, the company said.
These announcements, delivered in late August, were followed two weeks later by a September announcement that the company is investing an additional $150 million to increase the supply of its electrical power distribution solutions for customers across North America. As part this investment, Eaton said it is committing $80 million to significantly expand its manufacturing footprint in El Paso, Texas—creating more than 600 new skilled manufacturing jobs, opening a new facility, and increasing capacity at its existing manufacturing plant.
“Eaton solutions are at the heart of electrical systems everywhere and are vital to accelerate complex infrastructure projects for buildings, healthcare facilities, data centers, industrial facilities and utilities,” said Yelton, in a release. “The latest investment in regional manufacturing reflects our commitment to respond rapidly to unprecedented customer demand and the tremendous abilities of our longtime employees and channel partners.”
The new regional expansion will enable Eaton to increase production of its circuit breakers, switchboards, panelboards, and other assemblies that enable power distribution for critical infrastructure across industries. In addition to its El Paso investments, Eaton will expand capacity at its existing facilities in Beaver, Pennsylvania; Juarez, Mexico; Arecibo, Puerto Rico; and Haina, Dominican Republic, the company said.