Power transformer lead times in the United States have reached unprecedented, historical highs. While in the 2019-2020 period, if an electrical utility ordered a transformer, it took, on average, between 12 to 14 months for it to be delivered, it now takes 128 weeks, nearly 2.5 years. This is based on the most recent survey, that of the second quarter 2025 survey, and now the lead time appears to be even longer.
Transformers are absolutely critical to electricity transmission; without them, no one in a country gets electricity. To be precise, electricity generating plants produce electricity at relatively low voltage—typically 13 to 25 kilovolts (but with very high currents). The step-up transformer steps up the voltage to 65-765 Kv (with lower currents), which transmits along transmission lines. At such high voltages, the loss of electricity over distances is sharply reduced. Along the line, there are step-down transformers, which receive the electricity and reduce the voltage, so that the electricity, at lower voltage, is distributed to industry, agriculture, homes, etc. Indeed, the wait time for the step-up transformers, in particular, is now up to 144 weeks, nearly three years.
The increased demand for power transformers comes from three sources: 1). Hyperscale data center construction requires massive electrical infrastructure. A single large AI training cluster can require hundreds of megawatts of power delivery, each requiring transformers at multiple points in the distribution chain. Data centers in the U.S. consume 17-20 gigawatts of electricity, 6% of all U.S. electricity use, and the percentage is rapidly growing. However, much (though not all) of the output of the data centers is nonproductive and overhead. This drains electricity from the other two sources in the economy that badly need electricity and transformers: Manufacturing facilities converting from fossil-fuel-powered processes to electric systems require new transformer capacity, and the crucial modernization of the aging U.S. electrical grid.
