Eaton adds jobs and footprint to its first Innovation Center in Canada – providing a hub for industry education.
Intelligent power management company Eaton has expanded its newest global Innovation Center near Montreal in Brossard, Quebec, less than a year after its opening.
Eaton is adding 9,000 square feet and 50 more highly specialized jobs to the facility, bringing a total of approximately 200 jobs to Brossard.
As part of the expansion, Eaton is building a new Experience Center to provide hands-on training for the digital technologies accelerating the energy transition – accelerating innovation and adoption of new solutions.
“Innovation and industry education are essential to propel the world’s transition to smarter, more sustainable energy systems. Here in Montreal, we’re bringing together the electrical industry’s brightest minds to develop and test new technologies, working hand-in-hand with customers, regional universities and technical schools to make it happen,” said Luiz Fernando Huet de Bacellar, PhD, Eaton’s Vice President, Engineering and Technology.
“We’re excited to bring more opportunities to the region, expand our Innovation Center and continue to innovate the technologies propelling the energy transition and a more sustainable future.”
Since 2020, Eaton has invested $1.3 billion in research and development for sustainable solutions and is targeting a total of $3 billion to the mission by 2030.
At its Montreal Innovation Center, Eaton is collaborating closely with long-time customers such as Hydro-Québec to develop and commercialize novel solutions like its next generation microgrid system that will help simplify, accelerate and optimize the integration of renewables and energy storage for utilities, buildings and industry.
“The expansion of the Eaton Innovation Center, in particular the new customer Experience Center, will help enhance the collaboration environment between Eaton and Hydro-Québec and allow us to better integrate innovative technologies into our distribution system,” said Hervé Delmas, automation engineer at Hydro-Québec.
Eaton opened its Montreal Innovation Center in November 2023. With a focus on developing advanced solutions to optimize DERs, the company is bringing together multiple disciplines, including cybersecurity, software, human-centered design and automation experts to maximize the impact of sustainable technology across industries.
Eaton believes the electrification of more areas of the economy, including transport, building systems and industry will drive a substantial increase in power demand by 2050.
The company concedes it is technically feasible to meet this extra demand with electricity generated from low or zero carbon sources – but this will require concerted government support through policy and regulation, as well as research and development to reduce the cost of new green energy sources such as clean hydrogen.
By facilitating the trading of self-generated clean electricity to reduce energy costs, Eaton says it is enabling energy users, both consumers and businesses, to participate in demand response programs where the utility can turn demand and/or on-site generation up or down in response to signals for real-time grid balancing needs.
