Through expanding its portfolio of electrification services, ABB hopes it will be able to better help customers move from reactive to proactive asset management. As a result, downtime could be reduced by up to 90% and maintenance costs by 85%, alongside extending the life of critical infrastructure by decades.
Stuart Thompson, president of services division at ABB Electrification, explained: “Across critical industries, the cost of downtime is enormous, from lost millions of dollars in revenue in data centres to the safety and reliability risks faced by utilities and hospitals. This acquisition gives our customers the intelligence they need to diagnose failures before they occur.”
He added: “By transforming complex monitoring data into clear, actionable insights, we help companies move from reactive repairs to predictive maintenance, allowing them to focus on performance while operating critical infrastructure more efficiently, cleaner, and smarter.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. It has not been disclosed how much the acquisition is.
IPEC has more than 30 years of expertise in electrodiagnostics and advanced monitoring systems that leverage AI and advanced analytics to monitor critical electrical infrastructure. Its tools can help to predict multimillion-dollar losses, safety risks and failures that could lead to power outages in industries like data centres, healthcare, utilities and manufacturing.
Acquiring IPEC could also strengthen ABB’s commitment to operational resilience in critical industrial sectors. Given that IPEC specialises in partial discharge detection, companies can identify problems before they escalate into something costly and that requires significant downtime.
The result is infrastructure that is stronger and more reliable to withstand energy and operational loads.
“We have spent decades refining how we use advanced algorithms and, more recently, AI and machine learning to transform partial discharge data into useful diagnostic results,” said Dr. Colin Smith, managing director of IPEC.
As the data centre market continues to boom globally, IPEC said its equipment works to support the fast pace of this industry. Its monitoring platform monitors electrical infrastructure 24/7 and can track up to 128 connection points simultaneously. Likewise, its DeCIFer algorithm analyses monitoring data to identify potential equipment issues before they escalate into failures, enabling companies to plan maintenance work ahead of a major issue.
Smith added: “Being part of ABB allows us to continue to develop our technology and expand our innovation to more industries and markets.
“It also transforms complex data into insights that predict potential failures, enabling industries to make more strategic and intelligent decisions about electrical installations.”
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Datacloud Energy 2026
After a standout 2025 edition, we’re back with an even sharper focus on the intersection of data centres, energy, and ESG. As power demand rises and regulations evolve, there’s a growing urgency to rethink how infrastructure is powered, financed, and built for long-term impact.
