ABB has announced an agreement to acquire IPEC, a UK-based technology company with over 30 years of experience in electrical monitoring and diagnostics. IPEC’s advanced electrical monitoring systems provide continuous oversight of critical infrastructure, leveraging AI and advanced analytics to predict failures that could lead to costly downtime, safety hazards, or extended outages in industries such as data centers, healthcare, utilities, and manufacturing. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. Financial details were not disclosed.
The acquisition underscores the commitment of ABB to enhance operational resilience across vital sectors. Partial discharge activity, small electrical sparks that indicate the early stages of insulation failure is the leading cause of equipment breakdowns, accounting for over 80% of unexpected outages. IPEC’s expertise in electrical monitoring and detecting partial discharge allows businesses to pinpoint potential issues early, preventing disruptions and unplanned downtime. This addition to ABB’s Electrification Service portfolio will empower customers to move from reactive to predictive asset management, reducing downtime by up to 90%, cutting maintenance costs by as much as 85%, and extending the lifespan of essential infrastructure by decades.
Stuart Thompson, Division President, ABB Electrification Service, said: “Across critical industries, the cost of downtime is staggering, from multi-million-dollar revenue losses in data centers to the safety and reliability risks facing utilities and hospitals. This acquisition gives our customers the diagnostic intelligence they need to prevent failures before they happen. By turning complex monitoring data into clear, actionable insights, we’re enabling businesses to shift from reactive repairs to predictive maintenance, so they can focus on performance while their critical infrastructure runs leaner, cleaner, and smarter.”
IPEC is headquartered in Manchester, UK, with 70 employees across its operations in Oxford, Abu Dhabi, Sweden, Riyadh and Texas. The company has expanded from its UK utility base to serve customers globally, with data centers now representing its largest and fastest-growing market segment, particularly in the United States. IPEC’s monitoring platforms provide 24/7 monitoring of electrical infrastructure, with its flagship system capable of tracking up to 128 connection points simultaneously. IPEC’s proprietary DeCIFer algorithm analyses monitoring data to identify potential equipment issues before they escalate into failures, enabling businesses to schedule maintenance proactively rather than reactively.
Dr. Colin Smith, Managing Director of IPEC, said: “At IPEC, we’ve spent decades refining how partial discharge data can be translated into meaningful diagnostics through advanced algorithms and, more recently, AI and machine learning. By joining ABB, we can both continue to develop our technology and bring our innovations to more industries and markets, turning complex data into predictive insight that anticipates potential failures and enables industries to make more strategic, intelligent decisions about their electrical assets.”
ABB is a global technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. By connecting its engineering and digitalization expertise, ABB helps industries run at high performance, while becoming more efficient, productive and sustainable so they outperform. At ABB, we call this ‘Engineered to Outrun’. The company has over 140 years of history and more than 110,000 employees worldwide. ABB’s shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ABBN) and Nasdaq Stockholm (ABB). www.abb.com
IPEC Limited was founded in 1995 with the objective of transferring cutting-edge technology to the power industry by generating a dialogue between academic research, industry, and commerce. This has enabled the power industry not only to fully exploit the research and innovation of scientists at the forefront of power engineering but to make an active contribution to the direction of future research and development. In turn, IPEC has been able to respond efficiently to market demands and develop commercially viable products which bring real monitoring and control solutions to the power industry.
