Yeah the solar tsunami was something I had never seen before.
I worked a project that looked at the Synchrophasors in the system and the contribution they make to power distribution. They are really good at detecting disruption and other problems with transmission. Not sure how that can help/hurt this particular scenario but we were able to do stuff with them.I think the main threat to the power grid from a solar flare is the ground potential changes over long distances and causes a DC current to flow in the AC transmission lines that transformers HATE. Lessons were learned in the 1989 CME that took out the Quebec Hydrogrid. More capacitors were installed in transmissions lines and now we can detect damaging DC current flows before transformers blow up. However the preventative action is still a blackout.
The future is DC transmission.
Its already here in patches..I don't think we'll see that any time soon because it's almost like an "all or nothing" type scenario given the way the grid is currently setup.
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