As demand for electricity increases, the main part of the power grid is depleted

People are hungry for power. Everything in the world runs on electricity, and electricity is in constant demand. To address the exponential demand for more energy, people are reviving nuclear power plants, developing fusion power, investing in solar power, and building more traditional gas and oil plants technology: transformers IEEE Specthey are few.

A transformer does what the name suggests. You run electricity into it and it transforms the voltage, either up or down, and it outputs somewhere else. It’s an important piece of technology that’s used more than 100 years. They are everywhere small transformers in your phone charger and huge industrial transformers that take up space in warehouses.

And the world can’t make them fast enough.In April, the industry signaled that this was a problem published a report showing that lead times on transformers jumped from 50 weeks in 2021 to 120 weeks in 2024. Worse, if you need a larger transformer, lead times can range from 80 to 210 weeks.

That means if you’re building a power plant or substation, you may need to join a four-year waiting list to get critical infrastructure.The National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), a government organization affiliated with DHS, published a report detailing the problem back in June. Many trade publications published warnings after the report about the lack of transformer.

So why is there a shortage? It’s simple economics. Demand outstrips supply. Raw material costs have doubled since 2020. Many transformers use metals such as copper and grain-based electrical steel (GOES). Copper prices have doubled since 2020 rise further after Trump takes office if he moves forward with proposed tariffs.

We import a lot of things from the country that we use to make transformers. “Only 20% of the demand for transformers in the US can be met by domestic supply,” explains the Wood Mackenzie report In June of 2018 to help domestic producers increase their production, funding has yet to be specified in any future bills.”

There is only one factory in the U.S. that makes GOES.U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bob Casey (D-PA) own both. urged Washington add GOES to existing steel tariffs to “strengthen domestic production.” If this happens, it will make the transformer short.

Casey and Brown want to protect American jobs, but according to the NIAC report, there aren’t enough people to fill the jobs that already exist. which offer limited regional labor,” it explained in its report on the transformer shortage. “Domestic manufacturers cited labor shortages as one of the biggest barriers to capacity expansion is one. In the case of distribution transformers in particular, manufacturers have found it necessary to increase displacements to meet higher demand.”

We’re building a lot of energy-intensive stuff in Texas, with data centers storing stuff online and fuel-intensive AI models, and cities growing across the country.

Big Tech thinks it’s the answer advanced nuclear power plants. Reformers want sustainable and renewable energy like wind and solar. Oil and gas companies want to build carbon scrubbers and sell to people green washed versions from old methods. But all those methods rely on transformers, and we just don’t build enough of them.