USA, Washington D.C.: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has commenced an inquiry into the vulnerability of large power transformers that are crucial to U.S. electricity delivery.
The study could lead to a strategy for expanding a strategic stockpile of spare transformers to help the grid recover from potentially existential threats to the interstate high-voltage transmission network, such as major cyber or physical assaults or solar storms and other natural disasters, reports E&E News.
The aim of the project is to provide answers to key, still-unresolved questions that have held up a comprehensive federal response on the issue.
“The question, as we frame it here, is what the risk is to transformers, and to the overall system, from a loss of transformers, and [what are] appropriate measures to mitigate that risk,” said a DOE official, according to E&E News.
A comprehensive DOE analysis could identify gaps in what is, so far, a voluntary industry response to expand the transformer stockpile.
Source: E&E News
