Westmoreland County, once dotted with glass factories and aluminum yards, is in the middle of a quiet identity shift. Over the past year, a string of deals - from factory expansions to a sizable data-center campus and a major warehouse buy - has rolled through Hempfield, Upper Burrell, Jeannette, and Rostraver, bringing jobs and high-voltage infrastructure to sites that used to define the region’s old-school industrial era.
Hitachi’s big bet on high-voltage gear
Hitachi Energy is doubling down on the county. The company is boosting production at its Mount Pleasant switchgear plant and building a nearby facility focused on high-voltage components, R&D, and customer experience. The expansion is slated to create more than 100 jobs and is backed by state training grants, according to Hitachi Energy.
AI data centers move into old factory bones
The county’s industrial leftovers are getting a high-tech retrofit. Developers are taking large, power-ready sites and turning them into dense compute hubs. TECfusions has rebranded the former Alcoa R&D campus as Keystone Connect and lined up TensorWave as the first tenant, with an initial 10 MW AI deployment and a multi-phase plan to scale. The campus is designed to tap behind-the-meter generation and use liquid-cooling systems to handle heavy AI workloads while keeping an eye on grid impacts, according to TECfusions.
GE Vernova snags a giant Rostraver warehouse
On the logistics side, GE Vernova quietly scooped up the large Amcel Center Two distribution building in Rostraver Township earlier this spring. Local officials say the company has not yet laid out specific plans for the property, keeping neighbors guessing about what comes next. The purchase, first detailed in April by the Mon Valley Independent, underscores how grid-equipment and power-focused firms are circling the area.
Testing power: Ebara Elliott’s Jeannette upgrade
In Jeannette, Ebara Elliott Energy has quietly turned its plant into a much more serious testing ground. A major electrical upgrade now allows full-speed, full-load testing up to about 100 MW, a level that trade outlets and the company say will help validate next-generation compressors and serve large industrial customers. That capability gives the plant more weight as a local supplier of turbomachinery and related energy gear, according to Ebara Elliott Energy.
Prep work: parks, grants and redevelopment
County leaders and the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation say none of this is accidental. They point to a steady pipeline of pad-ready sites, including Commerce Crossing at Westmoreland and Westmoreland Distribution Park North, where up-front infrastructure work carved out big parcels for manufacturers and logistics tenants. State tools such as PA SITES and other redevelopment grants have helped pay for that prep work and lure investors, as outlined by Westmoreland County in its description of how those programs are being used.
Why it matters
Pull these threads together, and a clear pattern emerges. The Hitachi expansion, TECfusions’ Keystone Connect campus, GE Vernova’s warehouse purchase, and Ebara Elliott’s testing upgrade all point to the same thing: Westmoreland can now offer the mix of heavy power, rail access, and ready-to-build sites that both legacy manufacturers and AI infrastructure players are chasing.
There is a catch, and it is not a small one. Experts caution that large AI data centers can put serious pressure on local grids and water supplies, a problem that planners and utilities will have to stay ahead of as new projects move from press release to reality. For a broader look at how this build-out is reshaping the county, see coverage in the Pittsburgh Business Times, and for deeper reporting on potential grid impacts, environmental and energy analysts at NRDC have been tracking what the AI boom means for power systems.
