I have never seen a transformator explosion in Germany or Europe. What is different in the american power grid?
This page has a good diagram showing the difference between US and EU distribution systems - how the US has many small transformers vs the EU having few large ones, and how US customers get three-wire single phase vs EU three-phase
I suspect this is offset greatly by the differences in infra, where EU uses buried cables instead of US style utility poles.
I remember few years back an insane thunderstorm caused an "equipment failure" in the electrical infrastructure, and it manifested as a blackout. The blackout was somehow local and my mobile phone worked OK (though I could not charge it).
Generally any blackouts have been short, from tens of seconds to half an hour or so. No spectacular blue lights with aliens swarming in from the resulting dimensional rift.
It did raise thoughts of how highly vulnerable a modern society is to loss of electricity.
I mean, what if the lights went out and did not come back? (The Long Dark reference is intentional)
Were an EMP or something take place and fry electrical devices for good from a large ares, things would go bad and fast. The system impact would be massive.
There would be: no computers, no cars, no cell phones, no TV, no fridges or freezers. No digital clocks. No electrical heating. No lights. No deliveries to shops. No subway, no trains. No card payments. And so on. Eventually people would be out and rioting and stealing to feed their starving kids once a week or so had passed and any cupboard storages of canned beans and the like had been exhausted.
For various reasons, it can be impractical or not economic to provide very sensitive, very fast protection schemes for distribution systems. An example would be single-wire Earth-return distribution systems which still exist in rural areas of the USA.
But rest assured, there are transformer failures on a daily basis all around the world.
In the US there are transformers everywhere, you can see a house and a small transformer nearby.
In Europe they have this big monsters that cost several million dollars and require a train to move.
In Europe transformers in the city use to be underground and you won't see anything but a blackout of power.
It happened in Madrid some years ago.
Old transformers are very toxic as mineral oil with aromatic rings is burned,which is carcinogenic. New transformers use Hexafluoride SHF6 that are smaller, innocuous and easier to control.
But it cost a lot of money to update your infrastructure.
New York also has experimental superconductor lines.
PCBs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl
Europe is just denser. But frankly, you don't seem to know what you're talking about.
1.2-5MW transformers are really everywhere in France/Switzerland. Sometimes many per villages.
It makes sense: You prefer to have two transformers far apart than a big one and 2kms of 230/380V wiring.