There are four factories in North America still building large power transformers at scale. Between them they produce fewer units in a year than the continent’s utilities ordered in the first quarter.
A large power transformer is not a commodity. Each is designed for a specific site, wound to a specific voltage ratio, and tested against a specific set of fault conditions. The copper alone can run to forty tonnes. Once built, the unit is too heavy for most bridges and must be routed by a survey team before it ships.
These nine photographs were taken over three visits between February and June. They show the winding floor, the vacuum-drying ovens, the test bay where a finished unit is subjected to voltages it will never see in service, and the loading dock where a completed transformer waits for a road permit.
The lead time on a unit ordered today is between three and four years. In 2019 it was eighteen months.
Photographs by Sela Amari for Meridian.