FEATURE
True Tech
True Tech Series: interview with Peter Dopplmair, CTO Trench Group
765 kV: Building the Backbone of America's Energy Future
Scarborough, Ontario, 1975. A truck pulls out of the Trench Canada facility. On the flatbed: the company’s first 765 kV Capacitor Voltage Transformer ever built in North America, for Hydro-Québec – engineered to carry power from remote hydroelectric stations across hundreds of miles to Canada’s cities.
What started as a single delivery has since become a global track record. Trench 765 kV equipment now operates across four continents – North America, Europe, and major transmission networks throughout Latin America and Asia. The country with the most urgent need for this technology today sits right on Canada’s southern border: the United States.
A Grid Built for Another Era
America’s grid is being stressed. A 2026 NEMA Study (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) is projecting power demand growth exceeding 55 percent by 2050 – with the steepest growth concentrated in the current decade. To keep up, investor-owned utilities relied on by most Americans will invest $1.4 trillion by 2030 in strengthening the U.S. power grid, the Edison Electric Institute projects. There are multiple drivers behind this development.
New AI data centers are coming online across the country at a pace the grid was never designed to handle. Data centers alone will account for 38 percent of total load growth through 2037 (NEMA Forecast, May 2026). Add to that a wave of industrial electrification – semiconductor fabs, battery gigafactories – concentrated in regions where transmission infrastructure is already stretched. All while aging infrastructure is leaving the system increasingly exposed to extreme weather.
The supply side further compounds the problem. Power from wind generation in Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and from utility-scale solar across the Midwest and West, must travel long distances to reach load centers on the coasts. Meeting that, and everything else, requires annual grid investment to climb 50 percent – from $400 billion today to over $600 billion by 2030 (IEA 2026).
Expanding and modernizing America's transmission infrastructure is one of the defining industrial challenges of our time. Trench is here to help solve it.
– Bahadir Basdere, President & CEO, Trench Group
The Case for Ultra-High Voltage
A single ultra-high voltage 765 kV transmission corridor carries as much power as six 345 kV lines – with a smaller footprint and significantly reduced line losses over distance. The economics are clear, and the U.S. is moving. By 2032, the build-out calls for more than 4,000 miles of new 765 kV lines, 50 to 70 new substations, and an estimated $55 to $60 billion in investment.
Federal policy is accelerating the timeline. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) comes with a “Build America, Buy America” requirement: access to federal funding is conditional on using U.S.-manufactured equipment. Trench Group’s new HSP bushings plant in Charlotte, North Carolina was built precisely for this moment.
It is the company’s first production site in the United States. A $60 million investment, up and running within just 15 months. First 765 kV deliveries particularly are scheduled for early 2028. At full capacity: up to 3,500 bushings per year, covering the full range from 25 kV to 765 kV. With the potential to expand production to up to 10,000 units annually.
Building 765 kV for the First Time Demands a Proven Partner
For many U.S. utilities, building at 765 kV will be a first. That raises the stakes considerably: the voltage class leaves no room for specification errors, coordination failures, or late deliveries.
Trench Group brings more than 50 years of 765 kV manufacturing experience in and for North America, and over a century of high-voltage engineering expertise. The portfolio covers major component categories a 765 kV substation requires – bushings, instrument transformers and coils – all from a single source, all engineered to common design principles.
Trench Consulting supports utilities through technical specification and grid studies. Trench Asset Services manages installation supervision, operator training, and long-term maintenance agreements. One accountable partner across the full project lifecycle.
Texas Sets the Standard
ERCOT, the grid operator responsible for powering most of Texas, faces one of the steepest demand curves of any U.S. grid operator. Texas regulators have responded decisively, approving 1,255 miles of new 765 kV transmission lines at an estimated cost of $10.1 billion, with projects expected to be operational between 2031 and 2034 (Sustainability Directory 2026). Trench Group has been awarded a 765 kV CVT project supporting this first-ever 765 kV build-out in Texas.
When a market of this scale starts moving, the first projects matter. Winning the 765 kV project award in Texas is not just a commercial milestone. It is another validation that utilities trust Trench as their technical reference for the most demanding voltage class in the market.
– Klaus Merklein, Chief Sales Officer, Trench Group
The broader momentum is reflected in Trench’s order book. Long-term supply agreements are in place with OEM partners including HICO, Pennsylvania Transformer, and Hyundai Power Transformers USA. Trench also holds direct contracts with the world’s major hyperscalers – the companies building the data center infrastructure that is driving U.S. electricity demand to historic highs. The sector is booming: North America alone accounted for around 50 percent of Trench Group’s total order intake in the first half of 2026.
America is facing its largest grid build-out in half a century. The infrastructure gap is real – and Trench Group is helping to close it.
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