ABB strengthens commitment to Canada

ABB today officially inaugurated its new $90 million state-of-the-art Canadian headquarters and Customer Innovation Center, which will serve 700 employees who were previously spread across six locations in Greater Montreal. Campus Montreal houses research and development, manufacturing, assembly and testing for ABB's energy value chain.

“The new headquarters reaffirms ABB’s commitment to Canada as a growth market and an important customer base,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “It strengthens our capacity to provide our leading offering to our customers and support them with the digital transformation of their operations. We are in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and this site has been designed to enable our workforce to unlock value for Canadian enterprises.”

Campus Montreal is the home of ABB’s Customer Innovation Center, which showcases ABB Ability, the company’s comprehensive digital offering. By combining ABB’s deep domain expertise with network connectivity and the latest digital technologies and innovations, ABB Ability creates powerful solutions and services that address real business problems and produce tangible business opportunities.

“The new campus allows greater collaboration with our business partners and with the academic and research sectors,” said Nathalie Pilon, President of ABB Canada. “The latest technology from ABB is driving energy efficiency and powering Canada’s innovation ecosystem in so many ways. In addition to showing what ABB Ability can do, the headquarters is also home to our new ABB North American Centre of Excellence in E-Mobility.”

The ABB North American Centre of Excellence in E-Mobility was created to share expertise with Canadian customers and stakeholders in the field of electric-powered transportation technologies. It will support the development of environmentally friendly, energy-efficient transport networks, including electric buses and trains, and will bring together transit operators, power utilities and engineering experts to address challenges related to building smart cities and sustainable mobility solutions for Canada.

In line with ABB’s vision of sustainability, the campus is expected to be LEED-certified Silver for its sustainable approach to design, construction and operation.

This new site is an example of ABB’s broad and longstanding engagement in Canada. In parallel, the company announced a number of major Canadian projects. Among these was an agreement to modernize 10 large seagoing ships for the Canadian Coast Guard, equipping them with upgraded propulsion systems. When combined with ABB's Remote Diagnostic Service for maritime operations, the upgrade will enable the Coast Guard to extend the service life of the ships by 20 years.

In another development, ABB was named the Key Technical Supplier for Nemaska Lithium’s new mine and processing plant. ABB will provide overall project management, design and engineering for the complete electrification and automation of the production sites.

In addition, ABB has announced that it will provide an integrated substation for an important data center operated by Hypertec in Quebec. To meet growing demand, the new substation will increase the facility’s existing power supply from 25 to 120 kilovolts.

ABB has more than 100 years of experience in innovation in Canada and was responsible for the construction of a major portion of the country’s power grid. ABB Canada has 4,000 employees in 55 locations and is ranked as one of Canada’s Best Employers in 2017.