Local transformer maker to get jolt of cash

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This article was published 01/05/2009 (6292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A multimillion-dollar investment in a Winnipeg manufacturer of large power transformers will help ensure the plant’s status as a key North American player in the power transmission industry.

Pauwels Canada has been building some of the largest power transformers for electric utilities throughout North America since 1946. But the aging plant has required significant upgrading and a new $5-million testing facility is the latest improvement in Pauwels’ program to become more productive.

The 200,000-square-foot Fort Garry plant is now one of only three in North America that make the largest transformers.

Manitoba Premier Gary Doer said continuing improvement to the productivity at Pauwels is of strategic importance to the local economy.

"These are 340 high-paying jobs in a market that will continue to grow," he said, noting the ongoing importance of the transmission of renewable hydroelectricity in the future.

The Winnipeg plant has had a few different owners over the last couple of decades. In the early 1990s, it was called Federal Pioneer and was owned by Winnipeg conglomerate Federal Industries. It was acquired by Pauwels, a Belgian firm, in 1994. Over the years, that company ran into its own financial challenges and was acquired by the Indian multinational, Crompton Greaves Ltd., in 2005.

S.M. Trehan, the Mumbai-based managing director of Crompton Greaves, said while the Winnipeg plant generates about $100 million in sales for his $2-billion global enterprise, it holds a significant strategic importance.

"This plant is important in the high voltage, large power transformer business for the North American market," Trehan said. "This equipment is so big it has to be made here for North American customers. We are recognized as one of the plants with the best technology."

The new test facility is the latest in a series of ongoing productivity improvements being made at the plant to keep up with solid demand for power transmission equipment despite a global recession. Ian Harrison, a former Standard Aero plant manager who joined Pauwels three months ago to run the plant, said because of its location — in a residential neighbourhood across the road from an elementary school — there is no room for the plant to physically expand.

"Instead, we are making significant investment in processes and quality," said Harrison. "We make a very high-quality product, always have. But how we get it through the factory is what we are trying to improve."

He said the company is engaged in re-engineering some of the logistics, reducing inventory of raw material and sub-contracting out non-core activities.

Pauwels expects to produce about 65 transformers of various sizes this year, a number that has been increasing steadily over the last few years.

Bob Brennan, CEO of Manitoba Hydro and one of Pauwels’ largest customers, said the mammoth new testing facility is an important tool for Pauwels’ product offering.

"When you’ve got a $7- or $8-million transformer out in the field, you don’t want to have to drag it back for testing," Brennan said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

 

Pauwels Canada and Manitoba Hydro

 

The Winnipeg transformer manufacturer has been supplying Manitoba Hydro for more than 60 years.

More than 50 per cent of Manitoba Hydro transformers were made by Pauwels (formerly Pioneer Electric, then Federated Pioneer).

Pauwels Canada supplies power, auto and generator step-up, and HVDC converter transformers up to the largest-sized ones at 750MVA, 500 kV along with mobile substations to Manitoba Hydro, Hydro One in Ontario and other utilities in Canada and the United States.