This Essential Element of the Power Grid Is in Critically Short Supply
A transformer supply crisis bottlenecks energy projects.
Image for illustration purposes.
Why Is There a Transformer Shortage?
Driving the transformer shortage are market forces stemming from electricity demand and material supply chains. For example, nearly all transformer cores are made of grain-oriented electrical steel, or GOES—a material also used in electric motors and EV chargers. The expansion of those adjacent industries has intensified the demand for GOES and diverted much of the supply.
On top of this, transformer manufacturing generally slowed after a boom period about 20 years ago. Hitachi Energy, Siemens Energy, and Virginia Transformers have announced plans to scale up production with new facilities in Australia, China, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Mexico, the United States, and Vietnam. But those efforts won’t ease the logjam soon.
At the same time, the demand for transformers has skyrocketed over the last two years by as much as 70 percent for some U.S. manufacturers. Global demand for LPTs with voltages over 100 kV has grown more than 47 percent since 2020, and is expected to increase another 30 percent by 2030, according to research by Wilfried Breuer, managing director of German electrical equipment manufacturer Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen, in Regensburg. Aging grid infrastructure, new renewable-energy generation, expanding electrification, increased EV charging stations, and new data centers all contribute to the rising demand for these machines.
Compounding the problem is that a typical LPT doesn’t just roll off an assembly line. Each is a bespoke creation, says Bjorn Vaagensmith, a power-systems researcher at Idaho National Laboratory. In this low-volume industry, “a factory will make maybe 50 of these things a year,” he says.
Source: IEEE Spectrum
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