Varennes | Hitachi takes over a Hydro-Québec laboratory

A chapter will end at Hydro-Québec, which will shed its high voltage testing laboratory, responsible for the certification of high voltage equipment. It will be taken over by one of its main suppliers, Hitachi, which will also expand its Varennes factory – a project worth more than 100 million financed in part by Quebec.

Within the state company, this change of direction had been in the works for several months. The news was announced Thursday to the thirty employees concerned. These include technicians. They will not lose their livelihood: they will be reassigned elsewhere in the organization. At Hitachi Energy Canada, the announcement must be made official next week.

“Hydro-Québec had decided that these activities were not essential for it,” says the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, in a telephone interview. “When I look at Hydro-Québec’s action plan by 2035 and the work that awaits it, I can argue that laboratory tests did not represent essential activities. »

For several decades, the state-owned company has been carrying out these certification tests internally. His laboratory is currently located in the imposing brown cube that can be seen along Highway 30 in Varennes and which houses the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ). The state corporation does not cede any part of the place. This transfer must be formalized in 2027.

In this laboratory, Hydro-Québec carried out, for example, “current shock”, “lightning shock” and “direct voltage” tests, among others. The state-owned company explains that Hitachi was its “sole partner” for a long time and that these tests are not linked to its “core mission”, particularly in a context where it is preparing to step on the accelerator to increase its production.

Currently, the state-owned company must deploy logistical resources to receive the equipment leaving its supplier’s factory before returning it to them after the approval phase. From 2027, everything will be done at Hitachi.

Quebec finances the expansion

Quebec is putting 30 million on the table, in the form of a forgivable loan, to finance the expansion of the factory belonging to Hitachi, located a stone’s throw from the IREQ complex. This approximately 130,000 square foot (12,000 square meter) complex manufactures high-power transformers for power grids.

It was not possible to speak with representatives of the Japanese multinational on Thursday. The size of his investment has not been quantified. Since the Legault government often finances up to 25% of the bill for an investment project, it is reasonable to believe that Hitachi’s expansion should be around 120 million.

“We took the plunge,” says Mr. Fitzgibbon. The project, as a whole, is the company that is increasing its manufacturing footprint and absorbing with it the Hydro-Québec test center. »

The minister says Hitachi is also in discussions to obtain financing from the Trudeau government, but that negotiations have not yet been finalized. The loan from Quebec will be converted into a grant if the Japanese conglomerate maintains the 300 positions at its factory located on the South Shore of Montreal in addition to creating nearly 70 others – positions at “nearly $100,000 per year” , underlines the Minister of the Economy.

Hydro-Québec will need more high-voltage equipment since it aims, by 2035, to increase electricity production by 60 terawatt hours, which represents 8,000 to 9,000 megawatts of additional power. Its 2035 Action Plan provides for investments which should be between 155 and 185 billion.

The state-owned company will have to build nearly 5,000 kilometers of high-voltage lines throughout Quebec.

Read “Kilimetres and kilometers of power lines to be built”