Hitachi ABB Power Grids evolves to become Hitachi Energy, broadens commitment to sustainable energy future

Manama, July 4 (BNA): Hitachi ABB Power Grids has announced that it will be evolving to become Hitachi Energy from October 2021. The decision to change name has board and shareholder consent and coincides with the business’ first-year anniversary since it started operations on 1 July, 2020. Hitachi Ltd. has an 80.1 per-cent stake in the joint venture and ABB Ltd. holds the balance, the company said. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the technology and market leader brings a rich heritage of pioneering breakthroughs, which have helped to increase access to safe, secure, and reliable electricity for more than one century. Today, combating climate change is of paramount importance and one of the most urgent challenges of our times. According to the IEA’s ‘Net Zero by 2050’ report2, ‘the path to net zero emissions is narrow’ and staying on it requires increased investment in infrastructure, and specifically, an ‘immediate and massive deployment of all available clean and efficient energy technologies.’ By 2030, the world economy is expected to be some 40 percent larger but consuming seven percent less energy to be on track for net zero in 2050. By this time ‘the energy sector will be dominated by renewables’ and ‘electricity will account for almost 50 percent of the total global energy consumption’ – up from about 20 percent today2. An equitable and sustainable energy transition is at the center of this global challenge, where electricity will be the backbone of the entire energy system. “With climate change and increasing natural disasters, there is a need to solve three social issues worldwide: environment, resilience, and security and safety,” Toshiaki Higashihara, Executive Chairman and CEO of Hitachi, said. “Hitachi ABB Power Grids provides a variety of solutions that solve these social issues, and by changing the company name to Hitachi Energy, we are further strengthening our commitment to the realization of a sustainable society. Hitachi and Hitachi Energy will contribute to solve social issues and improve people's QoL by realizing social innova-tion in the energy field with customers and partners.” Keiji Kojima, President and COO of Hitachi, said that to realize a sustainable society, the use of digital technology is becoming indispensable in all fields. “In the energy field, power grids are expected to be at the core of innovation since they have high affinity with digital technology, and I am confident that Hitachi Energy will lead this innovation. Hitachi will combine digital technologies such as Lumada with Hitachi En-ergy's advanced energy technologies to provide innovative energy solutions that cre-ate social, environmental and economic values,” he said. “The energy landscape continues to evolve and so do we,” said Claudio Facchin, CEO of Hitachi ABB Power Grids. The business formally registered Hitachi Energy Ltd. on June 30, 2021 and is now undertaking the formal process for the change of names globally.