--- title: "Washington can now order Chinese inverters off the US grid, and the repair takes 128 weeks" description: "DOE closed comments on October 9, 2026, on the emergency order that reaches the Chinese-brand inverters already installed on America's solar fleet, more than 70 GW of them. No kill switch is proven; the 128-week transformer queue is." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Power" published: 2026-10-10T15:23:38.572Z modified: 2026-10-10T15:23:38.572Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/washington-can-now-order-chinese-inverters-off-the-us-grid-and-the-repair-takes-128-weeks language: en keywords: "Policy, Power, Grid Security, Solar, DOE, China" --- # Washington can now order Chinese inverters off the US grid, and the repair takes 128 weeks > DOE closed comments on October 9, 2026, on the emergency order that reaches the Chinese-brand inverters already installed on America's solar fleet, more than 70 GW of them. No kill switch is proven; the 128-week transformer queue is. The Department of Energy closed the comment window on October 9, 2026, for implementing [Executive Order 14421, the bulk-power national emergency President Trump declared on August 26](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/declaring-a-national-emergency-to-secure-the-united-states-bulk-power-system/) [1]. Its text names "data centers, artificial intelligence, and defense production" as why US dependence on reliable power keeps deepening [1]. The order revives an emergency that lapsed in 2021 [2]. It covers bulk-power equipment at 69 kV and above, from substation transformers to grid-connected inverters [1][2]. It lets the Energy Secretary impose conditions on foreign equipment already in service, up to "disconnect, replace, or remove" [1]. [The docket drew 131 comments](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/09/2026-18370/securing-the-united-states-bulk-power-system); under the order's 120-day clock, rules are due by December 24 [1][3]. ## The order that reaches installed equipment Under that authority sits a decade of the cheapest compliant hardware money could buy. Chinese-headquartered makers delivered more than 70 GW of commercial and utility inverters to US solar plants over the last decade [2]. They hold about 60 percent of that segment [2]. No US interconnection is built to ride through more than 3,875 MW of sudden loss [2]. A DNV study for Europe's solar industry says losing more than 10 GW would "most likely trigger a cascading outage" [2]. Strider's floor of high-risk Chinese equipment runs 5.4 GW across 66 solar sites in 22 states [2]. *Chart: **Chinese-brand inverter deliveries dwarf what US grids are built to lose** Bar chart comparing ten-year Chinese-brand inverter deliveries of 70,000 MW with Strider's 5,400 MW high-risk site floor and NERC design-loss limits of 3,875 MW East, 2,918 MW West and 2,805 MW Texas.* *Values in megawatts. NERC 2025 resource loss protection criteria, the sudden loss each interconnection must survive; Strider count of capacity at US solar sites using equipment from Chinese makers it rates high-risk; Wood Mackenzie ten-year deliveries of Chinese-headquartered commercial and utility inverters, a floor above 70,000 MW. Exposure is not proven remote control. [2]* ## No proven switch, documented reach No kill switch has been shown [2]. [A May 2025 Reuters report](https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-06-30/exclusive-us-working-on-ban-targeting-chinese-energy-inverters-sources-say), resting on unnamed sources and naming no manufacturers, described undocumented cellular radios inside some Chinese inverters [2][4]. A November 2024 remote message stopped Deye-made inverters sold as Sol-Ark in the US; Deye said "a few" gray-market units were affected, with no human intervention [2]. Sungrow says its US-bound inverters lack remote functions, and the Dutch economy minister calls hidden hardware "highly unlikely" [2]. Policy moved anyway. [A July national-security determination put new foreign inverter models on the FCC's Covered List](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/us-government-bans-new-foreign-made-humanoids-robot-dogs-and-solar-inverters-citing-risks-to-national-security/) [5]. It is the latest in a series of US actions that includes the Hikvision and Dahua surveillance-equipment bans [5]. [The FCC narrowed the entry on August 20](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/fcc-updates-its-covered-list-6713221/) to utility-interactive inverters with remote communications [6]. ## The repair is the chokepoint If the December rules order swaps, the binding constraint is the transformer queue. [Wood Mackenzie put power transformer lead times at 128 weeks in the second quarter of 2025](https://energynewsbeat.co/cyber-warfare/is-the-u-s-grid-open-for-cyber-attacks-chinese-inverters-hidden-radios-and-a-years-long-wait-for-transformers/) [2]. Prices are up 77 percent since 2019, and a single unit can cost $10 million [2]. The money is already moving there. [GE Vernova](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/ge-vernova)'s Electrification equipment backlog hit $41 billion in the second quarter, up 69 percent, with $2.7 billion of data-center orders booked in the quarter alone [7]. *Chart: **GE Vernova's revenue has climbed as grid-equipment demand builds** Column chart of GE Vernova quarterly revenue, 7.3 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2024 rising to 11.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026.* *GE Vernova quarterly revenue in billions of US dollars, from its SEC filings, retrieved 10 October 2026. The company's Electrification equipment backlog hit $41 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 69 percent, with $2.7 billion of data-center orders booked in the quarter. [10]* ## The market already split this trade The market split this trade before the docket closed. The day after the window shut, NOARK, the North American brand of Shanghai-listed Zhejiang Chint, pitched switchgear to data-center builders at the Yotta 2026 show in Las Vegas [8][9]. TD Cowen called the FCC move "kind of a non-event"; Jefferies saw "minimal impact today" but a "long, gradual shift in market share" toward Western suppliers [2]. SolarEdge jumped 8 percent on an upgrade tied to the curbs; Sungrow, at 15 to 20 percent of revenue from the US, expects that business to shrink gradually [2]. The Chinese bid runs through Chint: first-half revenue up 28 percent to RMB 38.06 billion, about $5.7 billion [9]. The low-voltage segment carrying NOARK grew just 3.6 percent, the slowest slice of a solar-heavy listing [9]. ## December writes the who-pays The rules due December 24 decide whether installed gear comes out, and how fast, against a 128-week transformer queue [1][2]. Someone will pay for hardening and spares, and utilities usually pass those costs to customers through rates [2]. The trade here is the replacement bottleneck, not the cheap gear. The kill switch is a hypothesis; the repair schedule is a fact. ## Takeaway Executive Order 14421 lets DOE impose conditions, up to disconnection, on foreign grid equipment already in service; 70 GW of Chinese-brand inverters are installed, no kill switch is proven, and the 128-week transformer queue, not the threat, is the binding constraint on any December 24 rules. ## Sources 1. [The White House, "Declaring a National Emergency to Secure the United States Bulk-Power System" (Executive Order 14421), 26 August 2026](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/declaring-a-national-emergency-to-secure-the-united-states-bulk-power-system/) 2. [Energy News Beat, "Is the U.S. Grid Open for Cyber Attacks? Chinese Inverters, Hidden Radios and a Years-Long Wait for Transformers", 10 October 2026](https://energynewsbeat.co/cyber-warfare/is-the-u-s-grid-open-for-cyber-attacks-chinese-inverters-hidden-radios-and-a-years-long-wait-for-transformers/) 3. [U.S. Department of Energy via Federal Register, "Securing the United States Bulk-Power System" (Request for Information, 91 FR 57322), 9 September 2026](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/09/2026-18370/securing-the-united-states-bulk-power-system) 4. [Reuters via U.S. News & World Report, "Exclusive: US Is Working on Ban Targeting Chinese Energy Inverters, Sources Say", 30 June 2026](https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-06-30/exclusive-us-working-on-ban-targeting-chinese-energy-inverters-sources-say) 5. [TechCrunch (Zack Whittaker), "US government bans new foreign-made humanoids, robot dogs, and solar inverters, citing risks to national security", 29 July 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/us-government-bans-new-foreign-made-humanoids-robot-dogs-and-solar-inverters-citing-risks-to-national-security/) 6. [Davis Wright Tremaine via JD Supra, "FCC Updates Its Covered List Designation for Foreign-Produced Power Inverters", 9 September 2026](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/fcc-updates-its-covered-list-6713221/) 7. [GE Vernova Q2 2026 earnings call transcript (Yahoo Finance), 22 July 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GEVE.VI/earnings/GEVE.VI-Q2-2026-earnings_call-652843.html) 8. [NOARK Electric via PR Newswire (Bastille Post), "NOARK Combines Global Scale with Local Execution for Data Center Power Infrastructure", 10 October 2026](https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/6240276-noark-combines-global-scale-with-local-execution-for-data-center-power-infrastructure) 9. [AInvest (Eli Grant), "The Data Center Power Boom, and the Thin Slice NOARK's Parent Leaves You", 10 October 2026](https://www.ainvest.com/news/data-center-power-boom-thin-slice-noark-parent-leaves-2610/) 10. [GE Vernova, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 10 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001996810) --- Washington can now order Chinese inverters off the US grid, and the repair takes 128 weeks — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/washington-can-now-order-chinese-inverters-off-the-us-grid-and-the-repair-takes-128-weeks