I hope one of the many items our country’s leadership should be worried about is the big transformers. One of the many things the recently signed Fight Inflation Act is going to do is to increase and make more efficient our electrical grid. The Southwest States, Texas, and California have more than enough renewable power for their customers. The region’s undersized grid can’t send power to where it is needed in the Midwest and Northeast.
Thousands of miles of heavy wire will be needed to tie all the areas together so power can be moved around to where and when it is needed. As we become more dependent on electricity to fuel our vehicles, heat and light our homes, and for other uses an efficient grid will be necessary.
Another requirement for those large and giant transformers in hundreds of more substations and for replacement of those in existing location is safety. Not long ago an underground group shot into one of those unprotected substations causing the transformers to catch fire. The transmission companies had some spares so they were soon replaced but what if it happened at too many places and the companies didn’t have enough replacements. They can cost several hundred thousand dollars each.
What if the Russians damaged more transformers than the Ukraine could replace. Wouldn’t the United States and other Countries send them some? Shouldn’t the Administration build up a large inventory of transformers for emergencies and help in building the national grid? Transformers make our modern society function and without them we truly would go back to the Stone Age.