Wicker, GOP colleagues urge Biden to end supply chain shortages threatening Southeast grid

With storm season revving up, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and a bicameral group of his Republican colleagues representing the Southeast recently urged President Joe Biden to address the supply chain shortages threatening the region’s electric infrastructure.

“Beyond the current invocation of the Defense Production Act for certain energy infrastructure components, more must be done to ensure electric reliability heading into storm season,” wrote Sen. Wicker and the lawmakers in a Sept. 1 letter sent to Biden.   

Four GOP senators joined Sen. Wicker in signing the letter, along with seven Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, expressing concerns about the supply of transformers and the raw materials used to make them. In their letter, the lawmakers noted that local power companies in the Southeast have called the availability of transformers “particularly dire.”

“Transformers are a crucial component of electricity delivery at substations and utility poles,” wrote Sen. Wicker and his colleagues. “This equipment is important not only for keeping up with economic growth, but for restoring power after storms and other extreme weather events.”

Costs are skyrocketing, they added, and lead times for some manufacturers are up to two years, while others are not taking orders at all.

At issue is the availability of raw materials like steel, wrote the lawmakers, who cited information from the president’s capstone report issued in February by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). 

“At a minimum, we request that you direct DOE to temporarily suspend its most recent conservation standards for transformers, which require manufacturers to use more steel than previously required,” according to their letter. 

In turn, manufacturers could increase transformer availability by allowing less steel to be used for each device, they wrote.

The legislators also asked that President Biden request that the Federal Emergency Management Agency engage with suppliers and utilities to determine whether stockpiles of transformers — particularly those that may have been purchased with federal funds — exist that could be used during emergency situations.