Hitachi Energy wins the Reuters Global Sustainability Award for Product Innovation
Features | Global | 22.10.2026 | 2 min read
Hitachi Energy has been awarded the Product Innovation Award at the Reuters Events Global Sustainability Awards 2026, recognizing its efforts to reduce emissions and advance more sustainable energy systems.
As electricity demand continues to grow, grids are being asked to do more than ever before. They must connect growing volumes of renewable energy, support electrification across industries and transport, accommodate major new sources of demand such as data centers, and deliver reliable power in an increasingly complex operating environment.
The award recognizes how Hitachi Energy is helping address these challenges through innovation in high-voltage technology that enables customers to reduce emissions while maintaining the performance and reliability required by modern power systems.
Building and modernizing the grid requires both innovation and responsible resource management. These awards reflect how we are helping customers reduce emissions, extend the life of critical assets and materials, and strengthen the electricity systems that underpin modern economies.
Product Innovation Award: Decarbonizing high-voltage technology
The Product Innovation Award recognizes Hitachi Energy's EconiQ® portfolio, an eco-efficient and SF₆-free portfolio that helps utilities reduce emissions of high-voltage equipment throughout its lifecycle, enabling a more reliable and sustainable grid.
For decades, SF₆ has played an important role in electrical transmission infrastructure. However, SF₆ is the most potent greenhouse gas known to man. Through EconiQ, Hitachi Energy has developed more sustainable alternatives that enable customers to reduce emissions without compromising grid performance.
What started with industry-first innovations has grown into a broad portfolio supporting customers around the world.
Milestones include delivering the world’s first SF₆-free 420 kV dead tank circuit breaker (DTB) to Eversource, successfully energizing the world’s first SF₆-free 550 kV gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) for State Grid Corporation of China, and unveiling the world’s first SF₆-free 800 kV circuit breaker at this year’s IEEE in Chicago—a breakthrough enabled by EconiQ technology at this voltage level.
Today, more than 4,000 EconiQ units have been ordered across 40 countries, reflecting growing momentum as utilities modernize their networks and prepare for the future.
High voltage is at the heart of the Era of Electricity and decarbonizing the grid is essential to making electrification truly sustainable. With EconiQ, we are shaping the grid of the future by delivering SF₆-free high-voltage technologies that combine proven performance with a significantly lower environmental impact. EconiQ is proof that reliability and sustainability can go hand in hand. Because the grid of tomorrow must not only deliver more power but do so more sustainably.
Building the grid required for the Era of Electricity
As the world enters the Era of Electricity, sustainable grid development will require breakthrough technologies that support the expansion of electricity systems while reducing environmental impact.
Innovation in high-voltage infrastructure will play a critical role in enabling electrification, integrating renewable energy and strengthening grid resilience. By developing and scaling SF₆-free high-voltage technologies, Hitachi Energy is helping customers address one of the power sector's most significant emissions challenges while enabling the expansion and modernization of electricity networks.
The Reuters Events Global Sustainability Award for Product Innovation recognizes Hitachi Energy's commitment to delivering the technologies needed to build modern, resilient and increasingly sustainable grids that will power a more electrified future.