The global supply chain remains strained beyond its capabilities since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Continued high demand for electrical equipment needed to support increased generation interconnections and transmission system buildout has challenged the manufacturing capability of producers, leading to extended delivery times for many materials and equipment. This is especially true for major equipment like power transformers and circuit breakers. Extended delivery times across the entire spectrum of materials and equipment have eroded industry’s inventory of critical equipment, limiting utilities’ ability to leverage mutual aid partnerships to source materials following storms or equipment failures. This risk has also spread to IT and network equipment essential for protecting critical assets from cyber-attacks.
Lack of materials to replace failed or damaged equipment extends outage durations thereby reducing availability of transmission facilities to maintain reliability. Lack of materials and equipment also can delay planned projects that are necessary to address identified reliability issues or bring online additional generation capacity needed to serve customer load.
There are several voluntary programs within the industry that provide a mechanism for utilities to share or sell spare equipment in times of need. However, these programs are not widely used and do not include the entire industry.