The Federal Government authorities seized a large power transformer made by Chinese company Jiangsu Huapeng Transformer Company at Houston port last summer and shipped it to Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Sandia Lab handles contract work for the U.S. Energy Department associated with threats to national security, the report said.
On 1 May the U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order for the Department of Energy to find and ban equipment from the power grid made by foreign countries that were considered a threat to national security. Many developers and utilities now fear they may have to delay projects, anticipating that components ordered from abroad could be banned.
The U.S. representative of Jiangsu Huapeng, Jim Cai, told the newspaper that the company had not been aware of what had happened to this particular transformer upon its arrival to the U.S.
The seized transformer was meant for the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) for use in its Ault substation. Apart from WAPA, the Chinese firm has also sold transformers to American customers the New York Power Authority, EDF Renewables, B.C. Hydro and MidAmerican Energy, the report said.
Cai said the transformer was built to the buyer's specifications, down to parts the number of which had been bought from the U.S. and U.K. suppliers chosen by WAPA.
Source: The Wall Street Journal; IT Wire