Editor's note: the application deadline for the “Next Generation Transformers – Flexible Designs" Funding Opportunity Announcement has been extended to July 26, 2016.
As part of the Energy Department’s commitment to a strong and secure power grid, the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability today announced up to $1.5 million in funding to encourage innovative designs that will promote greater standardization of large power transformers (LPTs). The “Next Generation Transformers – Flexible Designs” funding opportunity announcement is intended to stimulate new designs for LPTs that are more flexible and adaptable to facilitate transformer sharing and long-term replacement in the event of catastrophic failures, thereby increasing grid resilience. The due date for submitting an application is July 24, 2016.
LPTs, which are critical to the nation’s power grid and represent one of its most vulnerable components, can weigh hundreds of tons, are expensive, and are typically custom-made with procurement lead times of 1 year or more. Since LPTs are generally tailored to customer specifications, they are not readily interchangeable with each other, and their high costs prohibit extensive spare inventories. This vulnerability is compounded by the fact that many LPTs are approaching or exceeding their design lives. In the event of the loss of multiple LPTs, insufficient spares may exist and those that are available may not be easily installed at other locations.
Being better prepared for extreme weather events, the unpredictability of natural hazards such as geomagnetic disturbances, and the persistent threat of deliberate attacks is vital to our national economy, security, and services that Americans rely on every day. Today’s funding opportunity announcement is another important step in our ongoing work to further strengthen the reliability and resilience of the nation’s power grid by increasing our ability to replace damaged large power transformers that are critical to the electric infrastructure.
As the electric power system evolves to enable a more resilient and clean energy future and the threat landscape continues to evolve, developing a strong, flexible “ecosystem of resilience” of producers, distributors, regulators, vendors and public and private partners will allow us as a nation to continue strengthening our ability to prepare, respond, and recover from energy disruptions. Our partnerships with industry, other Federal agencies, local governments and other stakeholders are vital in quickly identifying threats, developing comprehensive strategies to mitigate those threats, and responding rapidly to any disruptions.
To learn more about ongoing efforts to address security and reliability concerns of large power transformers, visit the LPT page on our website.
