Transformed

This article describes the shift in manufacturing of transformers in the United States and its benefits. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the grid’s heavy reliance on imported equipment was seen as vulnerability. The RecX project focused on transportation and speedy installation of a modularized grid transformer rather than grid standardization. Home-based manufacturing of transformers can have major implications for the security and robustness of the grid. Building big transformers in the United States, closer by thousands of miles to installation sites, can simplify and speed up the development of transformers. Shorter distances can also reduce transport time. Large-scale loss of grid transformers is considered a high-impact, low-frequency event. The distant manufacturing sites and long delivery times that so worried government officials in the past have been seen in a new light. They represent an annual replacement market of several hundred massive machines, sufficient to support a major manufacturing expansion in North America.