Meiden America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Meidensha Corporation (“Meiden”), has established Meiden America Switchgear, Inc., with operations set to begin in April 2020. Meiden will expand the production of their environmentally friendly high voltage vacuum circuit breakers rated 72.5kV and 145kV at the new South Carolina facility, its first production base in North America. This location will also become the North American sales hub of Meiden’s vacuum interrupters.

Meiden, headquartered in Tokyo, set aggressive overseas growth targets in its 2020 Medium-Term Management Plan. Meiden’s world class vacuum circuit breakers and vacuum interrupters address the growing demand for eco-friendly switching equipment in North America, as the incentive grows to replace aging substation equipment with environmentally friendly alternatives, without the use of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas. Regulations are being toughened across North America on the use of SF6, which is a potent greenhouse gas. The drive to decarbonize the grid by shifting to renewable energy-based, distributed energy resources, further drives demand for Meiden’s emissions free power distribution equipment.

Meiden’s 72.5kV vacuum circuit breakers, which do not use SF6, were released in North America in 2007, and sales of Meiden’s 145kV vacuum circuit breakers will commence in the U.S. in April 2020. At the core of Meiden’s vacuum circuit breakers are its vacuum interrupters, which Meiden has been manufacturing since the mid-1960s. Meiden’s vacuum interrupters are also sold separately to manufacturers in Japan and abroad.

The Meiden Group is growing in tandem with demand for its environmentally friendly power distribution equipment. U.S.-based production is slated to begin this year.

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