Comment on The U.S. Just Ran a Solar Storm Emergency Drill. The Real Deal Would Be a Catastrophe
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days agoWith a high enough voltage the air will ionized and the power will literally jump over many protection mechanisms. Also it can cause certain dialetrics (electrically isolating materials).
An extreme enough event can be way beyond even the biggest of tolerances of safety systems, even if only because it can jump around the system through the air from the external side to the internal and supposedly protected side.
So it makes sense that when a massive electromagnetic storm is inducing electric currents along tens or hundreds of miles long wires, the only guaranteed safe system is to not even have a cable from the grid coming into your house.
curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
At that point, that grid connection will be the least of anyone’s worries. The storm in Quebec in… 1990? Ish. tripped breakers, and shut things down for like a day.
A storm on the scale youre talking about I am pretty sure would wipe out satellites (maybe even take them down due to atmospheric drag?), impact cables other than power like copper laid for internet and phone, etc. Grid-connected power or not you’d be several impacted and potentially at risk.
futatorius@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Along with tripping breakers, induced currents can also fry some of the massive capacitors that are attached to high-voltage transmission lines. Those are expensive and not quick to replace.
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Oh yeah, a large enough solar mass ejection in such a direction that it would directly hit planet Earth would be extremely bad.