So next time you drive by a substation on I-35, hear that low hum, and take a sip from your Stanley cup - give a shoutout to the man and the legend, William Stanley Jr., whose bright mind made it all possible.
What do Stanley tumblers and large power transformers have in common?
The same lineage of invention going back to one man: William Stanley Jr. (1858 - 1916)
But Stanley just couldn't stop inventing.
Twenty-seven years later, Stanley filed U.S. Patent No. 1,071,817, "Heat-Insulated Receptacle" (filed Jan. 27, 1913; issued Sept. 2, 1913).
The world's first all-steel, double-wall vacuum bottle—two concentric steel walls separated by a vacuum.
Genesis Mission Phase II applications closed May 19; $6–$15M awards.
DOE's $293M Genesis Mission AI/energy challenge closed Phase II on May 19. Phase II awards are $6–$15M over three years and explicitly cover "grid infrastructure" and "data centers" as challenge areas.
PJM filed FERC co-location compliance May 18; first reform cycle now in force.
PJM's compliance filing on the December 2025 co-location order was due May 18; FERC partially accepted/rejected an earlier filing on April 16, and the new tariff creates interim, non-firm, and firm-contract demand transmission services for data centers co-located with generation.
DPA Section 303 determination (April 20) names transformers "essential to national defense."
The April 20 presidential determination invokes Section 303 of the Defense Production Act on transformers, HV transmission components, substations, capacitor banks, electrical core steel, and related supply chains. DOE has not yet translated the determination into a funding round, but it is the strongest federal signal yet on domestic LPT capacity.
@NewsArenaIndia ah yes - a classic onsite Oil-natural Air-natrual (ONAN) to Oil-natural Air-forced (ONAF) upgrade.
the 60RPM fan is too far away and should be closer to 1,500RPM
close! should have called us first.
https://t.co/NPfSX63UxV
Labor crisis goes mainstream — Goldman and Ford CEO call electrician shortage “full-blown”; 300,000 electricians needed.
Fortune (May 13) and CNBC (May 19) compiled new warnings: electrical work is 45–70% of data-center construction cost, U.S. needs 300,000 more electricians today, and 2.1M trades roles could go unfilled by 2030. Data-center electrician wages now hit $280K in NoVA/Texas.
U.S. transformer lead times stretch to four years; prices up 77% since 2019.
PV Magazine reported May 11–12 that lead times for high-capacity LPTs have pushed to 2–4 years (5 years in extreme cases), with unit prices up 77% for power transformers and 45% for GSUs since 2019. 2026 demand is projected 21% above 2024.
PTT breaks ground on $102.5M Hoke County, NC distribution-transformer plant — competitor footprint expanding into the Southeast.
Pennsylvania Transformer Technology has started construction on a 150,000 sq ft, robotics-enabled distribution-transformer facility in Hoke County, North Carolina. Projected online Fall 2026, 113 new jobs in 2026 alone, targeting renewables and AI data-center demand.
🚨President @realDonaldTrump just unleashed five new Presidential Determinations under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to turbocharge U.S. energy production and infrastructure.
Issued April 20, 2026, these orders treat key energy assets as essential to national defense: Unlocking federal purchases, financing, and priority support to smash regulatory, financing, and supply-chain barriers.
⚡️A primer on how they advance American Energy Dominance 👇
🧵/thread
#DefenseProductionAct #Trump #DPA #AmericanEnergyDominance #supplychains #Drilling