This summer Hitachi announced its intention to change its name to Hitachi Energy and drop the joint venture name it adopted when it purchased the grid business from ABB. Today, the company is announcing that the former name, Hitachi ABB Power Grids, has been officially changed to simply Hitachi Energy.
Related: Shedding light on the Hitachi/ABB joint venture and why renewables play a key role
Claudio Facchin, CEO of Hitachi Energy, said in a press release that the company is “championing the urgency of a clean energy transition, through innovation and collaboration.”
Citing the International Energy Agency’s Net-Zero by 2050 report, which states that global electrification will nearly double electricity demand as electricity becomes the backbone of the entire energy system, he said that the company is committed to “continue pushing the boundaries of innovation.”
“Delivering on the promise of a carbon-neutral future will take passion, trust and innovation – and the benefits will be for our generations and those to come. With our new name – Hitachi Energy – we are broadening our commitment to creating real impact for our customers and partners, our people and society,” said Facchin.
In addition, Facchin pointed to the importance of HVDC in a fully decarbonized world and said that the company is contributing to many of these interconnections, such as the recently announced Saudi Arabia – Egypt HVDC interconnector (see lead image), which is the first large-scale interconnector in the Middle East and North Africa and the start of operation of North Sea Link, the world’s longest subsea interconnector between the UK and Norway.
Hitachi is also working on grid edge solutions like a microgrid in Cordova, Alaska, which was presented in a POWERGEN Plus session in November 2020.
As part of Hitachi Energy’s ‘go live’ celebrations, Facchin will on October 13 host a dialogue with Steven Chu, 12th US Secretary of Energy, scientist and Nobel Prize co-winner for Physics (1997), and Lully Miura, Japanese scholar of international politics and a member of the Growth Strategy Committee of Cabinet Office of Japan. The session titled, ‘Energy technologies and innovations that contribute to a carbon-neutral future’, will be streamed from the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2021 JAPAN. The focus will be on how to realize the ambitious net-zero targets that many countries have committed to and how Hitachi and Hitachi Energy are contributing to establishing a society that is more sustainable, flexible, and secure.
The business formally registered Hitachi Energy Ltd. on June 30, 2021 and is currently undertaking the formal name-changing process globally, with the exception of China where the business will transition at a later date. Hitachi, Ltd. has an 80.1 percent stake in the joint venture which started operations on July 1, 2020, and ABB Ltd. holds the balance.
