Massive factory opens in town near Hilton Head. What that means for the area
Advanced manufacturer TS Conductor celebrated the opening of its 300,000-square-foot Hardeeville plant this week, marking the beginning of the company’s ambitious plans for its Lowcountry operations.
The company, which makes advanced conductors to double and triple the capacity of the power grid, unveiled its new facility to the public on Wednesday. It’s located at 216 Industrial Court, within the Clarius Industrial Park, minutes away from Interstate 95 via U.S. 17, and 22 miles west of Hilton Head Island.
The facility is currently operating at about 5% with 20 employees, co-founder and CEO Jason Huang said. But over the next 18 months, the facility will grow and eventually employ about 460 people.
It’s the second facility for TS Conductor in about three years. Its first is in Huntington Beach, California. Huang said he was impressed with South Carolina’s manufacturing-friendly attitude, its technical college system and Hardeeville’s proximity to the Port of Savannah.
At its full capacity, the facility will produce eight times what Huntington Beach can produce, Huang said. In a few years, he said he expects to have a second Hardeeville building. The two combined will produce 20 times more than the California plant.
“This is the starting point that we can help transform the U.S. power grid to win the global AI race,” he said.
Increasing demands from AI data centers, more
The company’s advanced conductors are designed to double, triple and eventually quadruple the capacity of the power grid, Huang said. This is important because of increasing demands from domestic manufacturing and AI data centers, officials said.
Building new transmission lines is part of the solution, but that process can take many years, said Jeff Phillips, manager of transmission line design at the Tennessee Valley Authority. Traditional means will not get the grid where it needs to be quickly enough, he said.
“Electric demand in the United States is rising faster than any time in our recent history,” Phillips said. “Advanced conductors give us a rare opportunity to significantly increase the capacity on transmission lines without making work modifications.”
How TS Conductor landed in Hardeeville, SC
Hardeeville is part of Jasper County, the fastest-growing county in the U.S. by housing units and population, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
To accommodate the growth, the South Carolina Department of Transportation is widening I-95 and reconfiguring Exits 5 and 8. The city of Hardeeville is also working on a brand-new exit — Exit 3 — which will become the first exit in South Carolina for northbound travelers.
Convenience store and gas station chain Buc-ee’s is also in the first stages of building its Hardeeville location right off Exit 8. Buc-ee’s will open once the highway extension is finished, city officials previously told the Island Packet.
Getting TS Conductor to Hardeeville was a team effort, Mayor Harry Williams said. The company connected with state officials, like Gov. Henry McMaster and Secretary of Commerce Harry Lightsey III. Hardeeville, Williams said, had the industrial infrastructure in place.
“We brought that final piece that showed, A, we have the infrastructure, and B, we have the willingness to be a willing partner to work together, to go through the things we have to solve, solve them together and a willingness ... we created a marriage of two families, east and west, industry and government, employer and employees, all working together,” Williams said.
Bringing TS Conductor to the area is about giving the local workforce opportunities it wouldn’t have had 25 years ago, Williams said. The economic impact will be vast, he said, and go beyond the 400-plus jobs themselves.
“Homes will have to be built. Roads will have to be constructed and widened. All those things are jobs,” he said.