A shocking report out by Transformer Magazine describing a serious shortage of power transformers in the United States. The article says that there is a serious and shrinking supply of spare transformers resulting from supply chain issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic that can result in transformers being delayed anywhere from a month to even a year.

US power companies are raising the alarm about a potential energy crisis. Transformers are crucial to the grid because they change the voltage of electricity to make it usable. However, energy trade groups warn that the nation can’t count on aging transformers to keep the power on. Also, if transformers blow during storms, it could take more than a year for power companies to get new ones due to the supply chain shortage. ERMCO estimates that, in case a storm blows enough transformers in a city with no reserves, it could take several weeks to bring the lights back on.

Mike Partin, president and CEO of the Sequatchie Valley Electric Cooperative, says there is a supply chain problem putting USA at risk because it could take 52 to 56 weeks to get new transformers instead of the typical 4-week turnaround from manufacturers.

Now take into account not only the very bad inconveniences resulting from a lack of available transformers along with His Fraudulency’s push to force the production of a lot of manufactured household appliances including even automobiles to be electric along with enacting renewable energy schemes. You have the perfect storm for an eventual power grid collapse.

As lead times on new transformers grow longer, utilities are also worried about the nation’s ability to make new ones because transformer cores use a specific type of steel called grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES). Most GOES manufacturers are outside of USA.

The Department of Energy wants to expand USA’s production by using a more efficient kind of steel for transformer cores called amorphous steel. Amorphous cores are part of the DOE’s proposed energy-efficiency standards for transformers which they estimate could cut energy waste and slash 340 M metric tons of carbon over the next 30 years.

In fairness, however, power companies are able to pay for manufacturers to refurbish existing transformers or in some cases buy directly from manufacturers. But even that takes time and without being able to connect to the power grid transformer shortages also translate into higher housing prices due to high demand and reduced supply.

Remember the #EmptyShelvesJoe campaign on social media? Biden prided himself on being such an expert on supply chains and even denied shelves were empty (they still are) but has done little to resolve even replenishing necessities like this.

But this is typical of his policies since he starts up a proposal but does little to ensure the necessary supplies or infrastructure are in place to smoothly implement it. When it becomes too inconvenient, if Afghanistan is any indication, His Fraudulency just abandons it. But, hey, maybe this is all transitory or something.