"The Biden administration is still grappling with short supplies of ubiquitous equipment needed to distribute power to where it’s needed, even after the president tapped an emergency wartime law to complement energy incentives in an effort to boost production.

Long lead times for distribution transformers have emerged in recent months as a bottleneck that threatens progress toward meeting climate goals and upgrading the country’s power grid, industry leaders and energy officials said.

The delays persist more than one year after President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to mobilize federal agency resources to support distribution transformers and other electric grid components.

Officials at the departments of Energy and Labor say they are working to assess ways to expand US production capacity, but warn the problem is rooted in a systemic workforce shortage and supply chain issues that will be difficult to quickly fix. A lack of funding from Congress also limits what the agencies can do."

Daniel Moore reports for Bloomberg Environment July 14, 2023. [2]