Though critical to the nation's power grid, large power transformers are some of the most vulnerable components in the system. Armed with a shared determination for resiliency, government, industry, grid owners, and academia are collaborating on every front - policy, technology, and business - to ensure that if disaster strikes, the grid will persevere. If very casually, the North American electric operation and delivery system - collectively referred to as the grid - is compared to a human body. Its 6,000 power plants serve critical digestive and pulmonary functions to convert fuel into energy and release it into the bloodstream. Large power transformers (LPTs) perform the significant cardiac function of stepping up voltage for efficient long-haul transmission over roughly 360,000 miles of lines until it is stepped down again for distribution suitable for end use. But, though so crucial to the bulk power system, LPTs - which a North American Reliability Corp. (NERC) definition limits to generation step-up (GSU) transformers on the high-voltage side (100 kV or higher, with a nameplate rating of at least 75 MVA) and transmission transformers on the low-voltage side (100 kV or higher, with a nameplate rating of at least 100 MVA) - are under a constant barrage of threats, both natural and manmade.
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