At the recent IEEE PES T&D Conference and Expo in Chicago, our Managing Editor, Alan Ross, had the opportunity to sit down with José Roberto Reynaldo and Ed Morata, key leaders for the launch of their company TSEA Energy into the US, with a physical presence in Eden, NC and Houston TX.
Executive Background & Corporate Evolution
- José Roberto Reynaldo, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Executive Board at TSEA: Began his career on the shop floor at age 14, earning an electrical engineering degree and an MBA while working his way up to a director role. He joined TSEA Energy in 2018 during its transition from being Toshiba’s first transformer factory outside of Japan to a private-equity-owned entity.
- Ed Morata, US Operations Leader & Board Member: A former investment banker who joined the board 1.5 years ago to spearhead TSEA’s physical expansion into the US market.
The Export Pivot: In 2018, TSEA shifted from selling 90% of its products domestically in Brazil to exporting over 90% of its volume, with the US being its primary export market. Under this strategy, the company grew 4x in 5 years.
US Market Entry Strategy & Local Operations
TSEA Energy determined that exporting to the US was no longer enough to be considered a true “local player”. They are rapidly executing a multi-tier US footprint:
- Houston, Texas (Commercial & Services): Established in June 2023, this office handles logistics and client services. Houston was chosen because 90% of TSEA’s transformers land at the Port of Houston, and a large portion of their market sits within a 200-mile radius. The team has quickly grown to 12 people.
- North Carolina (Manufacturing): TSEA Energy is actively finalizing contracts to establish a US manufacturing plant specifically for voltage regulators. The goal is to begin local US production within the next 8 months.
- Service Model: TSEA does not intend to build a traditional wrench-turning service department. Instead, they focus strictly on engineering supervision, leveraging trusted third-party service companies to handle physical maintenance and installation.
US Grid Dynamics & Market Demand
The leadership team noted a massive, unprecedented surge in US energy infrastructure demand driven by the post-pandemic boom in AI, data centers, manufacturing reshoring, and electric vehicles.
- The Grid Dilemma: The American grid is aging, and the delivery of electrons is expected to be 50% higher in 4 to 5 years. However, infrastructure replacement is drastically lagging.
- Transformer Scaling: TSEA’s growth has largely come from the average size of the transformers increasing, rather than just unit volume. Their historical sweet spot is 200 MVA, but they are actively preparing their Brazilian facility to scale to a 300 MVA average and up to 765 kV capabilities to meet macro grid demands.
- Capacity Expansion: To keep pace with a 2-to-3-year industry backorder reality, TSEA recently doubled its production capacity in Brazil and plans to triple it over the next 5 years.
TSEA’s Competitive Advantage
When asked why a utility should choose TSEA over multinational giants (like Siemens Energy, Hitachi Energy, or GE Vernova), the leaders highlighted three distinct differentiators:
| Feature | Multinational Competitors | TSEA Strategy |
| Client Philosophy | Mass-market volume; sometimes losing the trusted personal connection with mid-tier utilities. | Niche Customer Intimacy: Limit focus to a deeply trusted, long-term roster of ~50 clients where executives are just “one call away”. |
| Decision Speed | Corporate bureaucracy requiring multi-layered head-office approvals. | Flatter and Agile: Backed by private equity, they can make critical executive and commercial decisions in days or minutes. |
| Market Positioning | Attempting to be a “one-stop-shop” for everything. | Premium Specialized Focus: Comparing themselves to a “Maserati,” they reject the one-stop-shop concept. They stick strictly to high-quality products they know how to engineer with excellence, expanding slightly into mobile substations, fluid transformers, and 765 kV capabilities. |
