It's been taking about a year to get 500kva-5000kva transformers and big 480V switchgear. Things never really recovered from covid. The AI buildout certainly hasn't helped things but it's amazing how long this problem has been around.
A fascinating glimpse of how much complexity underpins our modern world actually works. Obviously they must have factories for these things, but I hadn't considered the supply chain there.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/08/17/magazine/tran...
It's been taking about a year to get 500kva-5000kva transformers and big 480V switchgear. Things never really recovered from covid. The AI buildout certainly hasn't helped things but it's amazing how long this problem has been around.
A fascinating glimpse of how much complexity underpins our modern world actually works. Obviously they must have factories for these things, but I hadn't considered the supply chain there.
I'd only heard of it in the context of a solar flare blowing out all the transformers and we'd be SOL