WEG Buys L&S Electric’s Hydropower Controls Unit for US$11 Million

WEG has signed an agreement to buy the Power Controls Solutions (PCS) business of US company L&S Electric for US$11 million. PCS based in Wisconsin supplies governors and excitation systems for power plants. Most of its business is in North American hydropower. 

PCS has more than 1,200 hydroelectric generating units in its installed base and works with major utilities in the United States and Canada. The unit will strengthen REIVAX North America, the WEG Group company that already makes excitation systems and governors for power generation. WEG plans to pair REIVAX’s excitation technology with PCS’s open-architecture governors. Together, the company says, they give it a wider set of solutions for modernising hydroelectric plants.

Operators with PCS equipment may in future be offered upgrades that combine both product lines from a single supplier.

The move is aligned with WEG’s stated plan to grow its power generation market. It is a small acquisition by price, but it gives the group a foothold in an established installed base .Governors and excitation systems are the controls that manage a generating unit’s speed and electrical output, and hence are central to any refurbishment of an ageing plant.