GM $300M Capital Upgrade Integrates IONATE Intelligent Transformer at Transmission Manufacturing Site
Key Highlights
- The HIT technology provides real-time monitoring, enabling dynamic adjustments to optimize energy use and protect the grid.
- This initiative is part of GM's broader $800 million investment to modernize manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Ohio.
- Ionate's solutions have demonstrated increased grid capacity and efficiency in power system simulations, supporting sustainable manufacturing.
U.S. automaker General Motors (GM) is merging together the latest in globally tested electrical and digital infrastructure to transform manufacturing performance at its transmissions plant in southern Michigan.
British smart grid technology developer IONATE is contracted to install its Hybrid Intelligent Transformer (HIT) at GM’s Romulus 10-speed transmission manufacturing site. The automaker recently committed a $300 million investment to modernize the facility that makes transmissions for the company’s full-size trucks and sports utility vehicles.
Read more on GM's Battery Storage Investment
The solid-state electronics of HIT are designed to give GM real-time visibility into power quality at a sub-millisecond interval, thus improving resiliency and efficiency, according to the firms.
“HITs look much like transformers, and fill that position in a substation, but bring all-in-one monitoring and control we now need in power systems,” IONATE founder and CEO Matthew Williams said in direct response to questions from EnergyTech.com. “The HIT’s brain—such as sensing, power electronics, and software—allows it to continuously monitor conditions such as voltage, power quality and power factor, then make real-time adjustments to stabilize the system and protect the surrounding grid.”
GM is London-based IONATE’s first industrial customer in the U.S. market. The partners have not given a timeline for the HIT deployment at Romulus, but engineering teams from both companies are working together on integrating the U.S.-standard 3MVA (megavolt-ampere) IEEE units with final testing and buildout to fit specifically for the site.
The research is worth it in verified results, IONATE’s CEO Williams added.
“In power system simulations, the technology increased usable grid capacity by up to 25%, reduced energy losses by 6%, achieved greater than 99% efficiency, and enabled up to 33% more distributed energy resources, without requiring further upgrades,” he told EnergyTech.com.
HIT will combine sensing, power electronics and software to both energize and analyze GM’s manufacturing pace at Romulus Propulsion Systems. The facility employs close to 1,000 people.
Automation and electrification are forcing commercial and industrial sector customers to deal with expanding load and energy supply demands. Substation and distribution system upgrades can help mitigate the load swings and higher demand of next-gen manufacturing technology.
“GM's manufacturing operations demand the highest standards of reliability, efficiency, and power quality – and that is what we build for,” Williams pointed out.
Overall, GM is investing more than $800 million to strengthen its manufacturing footprint at three Midwest U.S. plants—in Romulus, Toledo, Ohio (propulsion and transmissions) and Saginaw, Michigan, metal casting operations.
“By investing in these plants, we’re investing in our people and the communities they call home,” Mike Trevorrow, GM senior vice president, Global Manufacturing, said when the capital investment was announced in April 2025. “The work our teams do in Romulus, Toledo and Saginaw Metal supports families, strengthens local businesses and fuels economic growth across the country. This $830 million investment is another clear signal of our commitment to these facilities, the exceptional people who work here and the customers who depend on the products we build every day.”
GM is IONATE’s entry into the large U.S. industrial customer base, but the British infrastructure firm has worked with global entities such as EDP on grid-scale transformer upgrades in Spain and Portugal. IONATE also is in a manufacturing partnership with Norway’s Magtech to integrate HIT technology into custom transformers at Magtech’s voltage regulator hardware facility in Steinkjer.
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About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
Rod Walton has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.