US Grid Strains as Power Demand Jumps 7% and Transformer Lead Times Hit 2.5 Years
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 7
US Grid Strains as Power Demand Jumps 7% and Transformer Lead Times Hit 2.5 Years
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 7
Summary
U.S. electricity demand has climbed about 7% since 2020, exposing a grid built for stagnation and now struggling to replace aging equipment while serving data centers, reshoring and electrification.
Transformer demand has surged 116% since 2019, yet roughly 80% of large units installed in the U.S. are imported, standard lead times have stretched to nearly 2.5 years and prices are up more than 77%.
The existing fleet is already old: the average transformer is 38 years old, and more than 70% are past 25, forcing utilities to replace worn assets even as new load keeps rising.
Workforce shortages deepen the bottleneck because large-transformer expertise is largely learned on factory floors, no U.S. program currently trains for it directly, and roughly half of utility workers are over 45.
The report says the shortfall stems from two decades of treating power as a no-growth industry and warns rebuilding domestic manufacturing, materials and apprenticeships could take much of the next two decades.