GE Vernova plans US$34.5M Louisiana transformer-factory expansion
Full production is targeted for 2028, with Louisiana offering a performance-based grant and the company planning 175 additional jobs.
Ines Halvorsen
Full production is targeted for 2028 after GE Vernova Inc. NYSEGEV announced a US$34.5 million expansion of its Louisiana transformer factory on Tuesday. The spending forms part of its nearly US$1.3 billion investment plan for U.S. manufacturing facilities and research centres between 2025 and 2028.
Louisiana offered the operating subsidiary, GE Vernova Transformers Shreveport LLC, a US$300,000 performance-based grant for site and infrastructure improvements, according to the Nov. 10 announcement. The company is also expected to participate in the state's Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs.
GE Vernova did not disclose the added annual transformer output or incremental revenue expected from the expansion, leaving the size of the sales opportunity unquantified. The 2028 target describes full production capacity, with no separate date given for first shipments from the expanded operation.
Shares traded lower at US$770.72 on the New York Stock Exchange at 1:10 p.m. EST on Nov. 10, according to NYSEGEV.
GE Vernova supplies power-generation, wind and electricity-grid equipment. Its Electrification business covers transmission, distribution, power conversion, storage and software, placing the Shreveport investment within the equipment business serving utilities and industrial customers.
"This investment builds on more than five decades of manufacturing expertise in Shreveport and strengthens our ability to support customers as they expand and modernize electrical infrastructure," GE Vernova Electrification chief executive Philippe Piron said in the release.
Equipment Upgrades Target Higher Transformer Output
The Nov. 10 plan calls for new manufacturing equipment, process improvements and supporting infrastructure across key production areas at the existing Shreveport factory. GE Vernova expects those upgrades to increase production of transformers for industrial and renewable-energy customers.
The company expects to add 175 direct jobs to the more than 630 existing positions at the facility. The expansion uses an established manufacturing operation rather than requiring a new factory site.
The demand behind the spending is visible in GE Vernova's Oct. 28 financial results. Electrification equipment backlog reached US$42.2 billion at Sept. 30, while the segment recorded US$5.4 billion of orders in the third quarter.
Electrification revenue was US$3.9 billion in that quarter. Orders declined 9 per cent organically because the year-earlier period included large synchronous-condenser orders, even as the company reported continued strong demand for grid equipment.
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That segment-wide backlog does not establish sales for the Louisiana expansion: the Nov. 10 release does not assign customer orders to the added capacity. Additional manufacturing output and the timing of deliveries will determine how quickly the investment generates additional sales.
Other suppliers are adding U.S. transformer capacity. Eaton Corporation plc NYSEETN announced on Feb. 12, 2025 that it would invest US$340 million in a three-phase transformer factory in Jonesville, South Carolina. Its announcement targeted production and hiring to begin in 2027.
GE Vernova has not supplied an interim commissioning schedule for Shreveport. The next production milestone dated in its Nov. 10 announcement is full capacity in 2028.
