(The Center Square) – North Carolina’s Commerce Department is supporting a Pennsylvania company’s expansion adding more than 200 jobs in the Sandhills with a performance grant of $800,000.
Pennsylvania Transformer Technology, distributor of power and distribution transformers headquartered in Canonsburg, Pa., is investing more than $102.5 million in its facility in Raeford. Two state-of-the-art facilities are planned, adding 300,000 square feet.
A release from the Commerce Department says increasing manufacturing capacity of transformers will “contribute to reducing domestic supply chain shortages of critical transformer equipment.”
In a release, company President Sandeep Chakravarty said, “We built our first factory in Hoke County, North Carolina, back in 1992 and have been proudly manufacturing power transformers in this community for over 30 years. We are thrilled to further invest in and expand our operations in Hoke County. This new state-of-the-art facility will not only enhance our production capacity, it will provide economic benefits to the community by creating additional well-paying, high-quality jobs and more broadly, contribute to the country’s economic growth and the energy transition.”
The One North Carolina Fund, a discretionary cash-grant program available to the governor, provides the grant. Pennsylvania Transformer Technology gets no money up front; rather, it must meet job creation and capital investment targets to qualify. Local government participation is also part of the statute.
The Commerce Department said average annual salary for the new jobs will be just under $65,000. Hoke County’s average is $42,659.
Economists question the effectiveness of financial incentives to private businesses to expand or come to a new state. The use of hourly wage as an indicator is questioned because salaries of a few corporate leaders can skew the average higher while it would not have the same impact on the median wage.
Pennsylvania Transformer Technology operates two facilities – one at headquarters, the other in the Tarheel State. The Raeford facility, about 56,000 square feet on 10 acres, can test a basic insulation level of 550 kilovolts and transmission line voltage of 138 kilovolts.
There is 60 tons lifting capacity, vacuum oil filling, vapor-phase processing, and an oil de-aeration facility.
The Canonsburg facility, an 18-building campus on 90 acres with about 1 million square feet, can test 2400 kV BIL and 765 kV. It has 500 tons of lifting capacity, a 200,000 square foot tank fabrication bay, and bills itself as North America’s largest Georg automatic core cutting and e-stacking line.
