Stormy sun could knock out power grids - report

Originally posted by soficrow

This study comes from Allianz insurance - otherwise, "The severity of a potential disruption has made experts at insurance and national security institutions take notice."

Nothing is going to happen tomorrow - probably - but we're entering a period of bad space weather.

...One that just incidentally coincides with the 2012 predictions. Interesting, yes?

And also interesting that the news is coming out now, especially on Reuters.




uk.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

edit on 2/12/11 by soficrow because: wd

Don't forget to buy your insurance now. HEY, i got a bunker for you at the right price.$$$$$$$$$.

reply to post by soficrow


Bingo, that would certainly put the "Hurt" on their ratings now wouldn't it?
Not to mention the fact their ability to Broadcast might be non-existent.

Best to you Soficrow

reply to post by Phage

...www.oecd.org...
(Whatever you do, do not read the worst case scenario contained within)

You mean this bit?

…..we examined three periods of outage: during the storm, after one week, and after one month. These snapshots in time help illustrate the potential cascading effects and the necessity for rapid recovery. Among other sector disruptions, a long-term power outage could: disrupt transportation, communication, banking and finance systems, and government services; cause the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure; and cause the loss of perishable foods and medication because of lack of refrigeration (NAS, 2008). The emergency services sector also would be affected by the prolonged loss of power, through the potential loss of their communications, water supply or even non-working traffic signals preventing emergency vehicles from quickly responding to an emergency. The water sector requires energy for supply, purification, distribution and treatment of water and wastewater (U.S. Department of Energy, 2006). Individuals can only survive for a three- or four-day period without access to clean drinking water. Without electricity to power the city water pumps and water purification plants, many individuals could lose access to clean drinking water. Lack of clean drinking water could become a critical issue during an extended power blackout lasting weeks or months (Marusek, 2007).

Originally posted by soficrow
reply to post by Phage

 

...www.oecd.org...
(Whatever you do, do not read the worst case scenario contained within)

You mean this bit?

…..we examined three periods of outage: during the storm, after one week, and after one month. These snapshots in time help illustrate the potential cascading effects and the necessity for rapid recovery. Among other sector disruptions, a long-term power outage could: disrupt transportation, communication, banking and finance systems, and government services; cause the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure; and cause the loss of perishable foods and medication because of lack of refrigeration (NAS, 2008). The emergency services sector also would be affected by the prolonged loss of power, through the potential loss of their communications, water supply or even non-working traffic signals preventing emergency vehicles from quickly responding to an emergency. The water sector requires energy for supply, purification, distribution and treatment of water and wastewater (U.S. Department of Energy, 2006). Individuals can only survive for a three- or four-day period without access to clean drinking water. Without electricity to power the city water pumps and water purification plants, many individuals could lose access to clean drinking water. Lack of clean drinking water could become a critical issue during an extended power blackout lasting weeks or months (Marusek, 2007).

Maybe some of you can be a truck driver and deliver refrigerated goods to UTAH and Georgia. They have ads out all over the place and they train and pay you too. I think i'm going to take that job.

Geomagnetic storms can vary wildly in intensity. Maybe we should hire more electrical and electronic engineers to make infrastructure more robust and be able to recover far more quickly.

March 1989 geomagnetic storm

The geomagnetic storm causing this event was itself the result of a coronal mass ejection on March 9, 1989.[1] Three and a half days later, at 2:44 am on March 13, 1989, a severe geomagnetic storm struck Earth.[2][3] The storm began on Earth with extremely intense auroras at the poles. The aurora could be seen as far south as Texas.[4]

The variations in the earth's magnetic field also tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Québec's power grid. The utility's very long transmission lines and the fact that most of Quebec sits on a large rock shield prevented current flowing through the earth, finding a less resistant path along the 735 kV power lines.[6]

The James Bay network went offline in less than 90 seconds, giving Quebec its second massive blackout in 11 months.[7] The power failure lasted 9 hours and forced the company to implement various mitigation strategies, including raising the trip level, installing series compensation on ultra high voltage lines and upgrading various monitoring and operational procedures. Other utilities in North America, the UK, Northern Europe and elsewhere implemented programs to reduce the risks associated with geomagnetically induced currents.[6]

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by chrismicha77


From what I have read, the Maunder Minimum is supposed to occur after this solar cycle, starting in late 2013 or early 2014.

The information in this article has been available for quite some time, it happens at the end of every ~11 year cycle. Some are stronger than others and some are not so bad. This is supposed to be one of the stronger, but predicting solar weather is still in it's infancy and no one can be certain what will occur.

reply to post by Phage


Thanks for the input Phage, one of the mitigation measures that I have heard is being considered with our local power company is to perform a planned outage as soon as they receive the news of such a possible event until a few hours after significant decrease occurs.

This might prevent some of the possible damage, but induction could still cause quite a bit.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by soficrow

 

Canada is more likely to be affected than the lower 48 (and Hawaii). They've updated their studies more recently than 20 years ago.
www.solarstorms.org...

Appropriately, DHS is on it too.

The literature on mitigating risk of geomagnetic storm effects on electric power systems is very consistent, focusing on two basic methods of reducing either the vulnerability or the consequence. The first risk mitigation method is hardening; the second is operational procedures.

www.oecd.org...
(Whatever you do, do not read the worst case scenario contained within)

Good sources, thanks.

You do know that your parenthetical comment is going to force some of us to read exactly that, don't you?