Consolidation in the Electricity T&D Industry



Though there is some continuity and many of the big-name players have been around in one form or another since the advent of the first electrical grids, the landscape of manufacturers we know today is completely different from that of the last century. On an even shorter scale, there has been a recent wave of consolidation and mergers in which some big names have been absorbed such as the GE-Alstom deal.
Similarly, in the Metering industry, Toshiba acquired Landis+Gyr in 2011, only to currently be facing speculation that it will again float the metering business to raise funds. With such rapid developments, it is sometimes difficult to keep pace, though there are always a key set of brands that remain resilient cycles.
In the T&D sectors, ABB is a prime example of how the industry has consolidated over the years. In 1988 two companies; ASEA, and Brown Boveri & Cie (BBC) merged to become ASEA Brown Boveri or ABB. The roots of each of the two separate companies that would later form ABB can be traced back to 1883. Each of those separate companies also grew through mergers and acquisitions in their separate histories prior to 1988.
At the time of the GE-Alstom merger, there was little overlap in many of the business areas of the two companies. Though there were regulatory and competitiveness hurdles to overcome, GE successfully absorbed Alstom’s power generation business in 2015. The name Alstom, however, does live on in the rail transportation industry.
What the industry will look like in ten to twenty years’ time is anyone’s guess. It is certain that our need for power will only grow and companies that are multi-facetted and that are able to innovate will certainly have a leg up on their competitors.

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