Risk of darkness looms across Europe and America as power-hungry AI data  
  centers and electric cars drain the grid, decimate factory capacity, and  
  engineer a four-year wait for transformers  
    
  Date:  
  Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:35:00 +0000  
    
  Global transformer shortages, aging power grids and rising electricity  
  demand  
  are extending delivery times, increasing costs and delaying infrastructure  
  expansion worldwide.  
    
  Aging electricity grids are driving an urgent wave of transformer  
  replacements. Electricity grids across Europe and North America are facing a  
  serious equipment shortage that could delay new electricity connections for  
  years, experts have warned.  
    
  Power transformers, the large devices that regulate voltage before  
  electricity reaches homes and factories, now take considerably longer to  
  manufacture. Orders that once took 6 to 12 months before 2020 can now take  
  between 24 and 48 months to complete.  
    
  What is fueling the surge in demand? The rise of electric vehicles and  
  the shift toward industrial electrification are placing significant new  
  demands on local power grids.  
    
  Utility companies increasingly compete directly with private developers for  
  the same limited factory capacity, extending wait times for nearly  
  everyone.  
    
  Much of the substation infrastructure built 30 to 50 years ago across the  
  United States and Western Europe now requires urgent replacement.  
    
  Wind farms and solar installations also require specialized step-up  
  transformers to convert the power they generate before long-distance  
  transmission occurs.  
    
  Battery storage projects add further complexity, since each installation  
  requires its own dedicated transformer connected directly to the wider  
  power  
  grid.  
    
  The most significant new demand originates from data centers built to  
  support  
  artificial intelligence and AI tools , which consume electricity at an  
  extraordinary rate.  
    
  A single facility of this kind can draw several hundred megawatts,  
  comparable  
  to the electricity consumption of a mid-sized city.  
    
  Large technology firms can pay in advance to reserve years of factory  
  output,  
  leaving smaller buyers to wait even longer.  
    
  The situation is so critical that the largest transformers, rated above 100  
  MVA and 230 kV, once shipped within 12 to 18 months, can now require well  
  more than 36 months for delivery. Why factories cannot simply build faster  
  The principal constraint lies at the material level, since transformer  
  cores  
  depend on grain-oriented electrical steel that remains in short supply.  
    
  Alternative steel grades cannot satisfy strict efficiency standards set by  
  the European Union and the United States Department of Energy.  
    
  Copper prices for internal winding materials have remained high, adding  
  considerable cost pressure to already constrained manufacturing budgets  
  across the industry.  
    
  Skilled labour shortages further complicate matters across the industry,  
  since transformer assembly still depends heavily on precise, hands-on  
  manual  
  craftsmanship.  
    
  Factory testing facilities, where each unit undergoes impulse voltage and  
  short-circuit evaluation, can only process a limited volume weekly, further  
  limiting overall output.  
    
  As a result, equipment prices have climbed 50% to 80% above pre-2020  
  levels,  
  driven largely by rising material and labour costs.  
    
  While industrial transformers take more time, smaller units used in  
  residential and commercial settings ship faster, usually within 12 to 20  
  months.  
    
  Industry analysts regard these pressures as structural rather than  
  temporary,  
  suggesting sustained capacity investment will be required before conditions  
  ease. Buyers who plan early, secure factory slots in advance, and  
  standardize  
  technical specifications appear better equipped to manage prolonged delays.  
    
  Diversifying supplier relationships beyond congested manufacturers may  
  offer  
  flexibility as global demand continues to outpace available production  
  capacity worldwide.  
    
  Via Evernew Electrical (originally in Swedish)  
    
  Link to news story:  
    
  https://www.techradar.com/pro/darkness-looms-across-europe-and-america-as-  
  powe  
  r-hungry-ai-data-centers-and-electric-cars-drain-the-grid-decimate-factory-  
  cap  
  acity-and-engineer-a-four-year-wait-for-transformers-threatening-to-leave-  
  enti  
  re-regions-in-the-dark  
    
  $$  
  --- MultiMail/DOS  
   * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * KY, USA (1:2320/107)