6 ms·

How does one protect against catastrophic cascading power failures in the event of solar flares, given this greater interconnectivity?

mhandley 5y ago
I wonder how much of an issue this is for long distance undersea power cables? If you temporarily disconnect both ends during a solar storm, does the fact that they're under a great depth of electrically conductive salt water serve to protect the cables themselves?
mistrial9 5y ago
start with the basics ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid
5faulker 5y ago
Some of these technologies are still in their nascent form IMHO.
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> How does one protect against catastrophic cascading power failures in the event of solar flares, given this greater interconnectivity? Does the risk of damage go up, practically speaking, when comparing a country-wide guide to a continent-wide one? As in, is there any equipment that would survive the former but not the latter? Or mitigation techniques that work in the case of the former but not the latter?
- retrac 5y ago
  It depends in part, on the length of conductors. In the 1989 magnetic storm, long-distance lines in Quebec were blown, while shorter length runs weren't as badly affected. Multiple short spans not all lined up the same way but carrying the same amount of power, is far less vulnerable than one 1000 km long wire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm
Ericson2314 5y ago
Same as we always do: planned disconnection and blackouts to manage demand.
fighterpilot 5y ago
Backup natural gas plants? Just throwing it out there, don't know if that would actually be sensible.
- heurisko 5y ago
  I believe gas plants are already used to stabilise grids, as they have the benefit of being able to come online quickly. They do depend on subsidies, however, as the idea is they would be mostly offline.
pfdietz 5y ago
HVDC lines are immune to solar storms. The problem for the grid is DC currents induced in AC lines, causing failure of transformers. But on DC lines, it just perturbs the voltage slightly.

mhandley 5y ago

I wonder how much of an issue this is for long distance undersea power cables? If you temporarily disconnect both ends during a solar storm, does the fact that they're under a great depth of electrically conductive salt water serve to protect the cables themselves?

mistrial9 5y ago

start with the basics ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid

5faulker 5y ago

Some of these technologies are still in their nascent form IMHO.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago

> How does one protect against catastrophic cascading power failures in the event of solar flares, given this greater interconnectivity? Does the risk of damage go up, practically speaking, when comparing a country-wide guide to a continent-wide one? As in, is there any equipment that would survive the former but not the latter? Or mitigation techniques that work in the case of the former but not the latter?

retrac 5y ago
It depends in part, on the length of conductors. In the 1989 magnetic storm, long-distance lines in Quebec were blown, while shorter length runs weren't as badly affected. Multiple short spans not all lined up the same way but carrying the same amount of power, is far less vulnerable than one 1000 km long wire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm

Ericson2314 5y ago

Same as we always do: planned disconnection and blackouts to manage demand.

fighterpilot 5y ago

Backup natural gas plants? Just throwing it out there, don't know if that would actually be sensible.

heurisko 5y ago
I believe gas plants are already used to stabilise grids, as they have the benefit of being able to come online quickly. They do depend on subsidies, however, as the idea is they would be mostly offline.

pfdietz 5y ago

HVDC lines are immune to solar storms. The problem for the grid is DC currents induced in AC lines, causing failure of transformers. But on DC lines, it just perturbs the voltage slightly.