Started in India in 1949. Today running engineering for power grids across 80 countries from Chennai — and targeting 30% of India’s data centre market.
Hitachi Energy’s India story does not start in the GCC era. It starts in 1949, when the company — then called Hindustan Electric — began operations in India. Its first manufacturing facility came up in Vadodara in 1962. The business changed names over the decades — Hindustan Brown Boveri, ABB Power Grids, Hitachi ABB Power Grids — before becoming Hitachi Energy in 2020 when Hitachi Ltd acquired ABB’s power grids business.
2024 marked 75 years in India. The company today has over 7,500 employees across 19 manufacturing units in eight locations, 3,000 energy transition technologists, and a $10 billion installed base. It operates under two entities — Hitachi Energy India Limited, listed on NSE and BSE as POWERINDIA, and Hitachi Energy Technology Services Pvt Ltd.
The India footprint runs deep. More than half of India’s HVDC links use Hitachi Energy technology. Most metro rail systems in the country deploy its power automation. It has partnered with Indian Railways to develop Scott Transformers for high-speed rail.
Chennai — from operations centre to global engineering hub
The India Operations Centre in Chennai — INOPC — started as a competence centre for tendering, engineering, planning, and procurement. Over the past decade it grew into the company’s largest engineering hub globally. It supports Hitachi Energy’s units in more than 40 countries and has executed engineering and commissioning for projects in more than 80 countries.
In October 2023 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin inaugurated Hitachi Energy’s largest Global Technology and Innovation Centre in Chennai — 300,000 square feet including 50,000 square feet of dedicated laboratory space. It houses more than 2,500 energy transition technologists and executes over 1,000 projects annually across 40 countries.
Claudio Facchin, CEO of Hitachi Energy, said at the inauguration: “This centre in Chennai is a strategic investment that accelerates innovation, digitalisation, and engineering capability to support our customers in advancing the world’s energy system to be more sustainable, flexible, and secure. It further reinforces our commitment in India as a critical hub ready to take on the challenges of the transformation of the future global energy system through electrification.”
N Venu, Managing Director and CEO of Hitachi Energy India and South Asia, said: “The new Global Technology and Innovation Centre supports our vision of made in India for India and the world. Through diversity and collaboration, it is geared toward delivering real-impact in research and development and end-to-end engineering of global projects.”
2026 — the next chapter
In May 2026 Hitachi Energy India announced a ₹2,000 crore investment in a greenfield large power transformer facility in Gujarat — taking cumulative capital expenditure to ₹4,000 crore across 19 factories in eight locations. The company closed the year with a record order backlog of ₹29,600 crore.
Venu Nuguri, Managing Director and CEO of Hitachi Energy India, said the company is targeting 30% of India’s total data centre spending — up from a previous target of 10-15%. Its grid-to-rack solution integrates power infrastructure for data centres from the grid-level connection down to server rack-level distribution. The company is also actively exploring acquisitions in data centres, digital layers, and power consulting.
75 years
Hitachi Energy’s India presence predates the IT boom, the GCC wave, and the current wave of foreign company expansion by decades. What it built over that time — 19 manufacturing units, a $10 billion installed base, the world’s largest energy technology and innovation centre, and more than half of India’s HVDC infrastructure — cannot be replicated quickly.
The ₹4,000 crore in cumulative capex and a record ₹29,600 crore order backlog in 2026 are not the numbers of a company hedging its India bet. They belong to one that made its decision 75 years ago and has not looked back since.
Hitachi Energy is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland and is a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, Japan. Hitachi Energy India Limited is listed on NSE and BSE as POWERINDIA
