Geomagnetic storms and their impacts on Ethiopian power grid

Abstract

In present work we analysed eight geomagnetic storm events in 2015/2016 and studied the possible influence of these events on Ethiopian power grids. The results showed that the majority of the forced power outages occurred in the period of the main phase of events and the recovery period of the geomagnetic storms. The geomagnetic storms are characterised by different indices and parameters such as the disturbance storm time (Dst) values, coronal mass ejection (CME) speed, solar wind speed (V sw) and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF-Bz) on the selected dates. In most cases the observed geomagnetic storms were produced by the CME-driven storms as they show a storm sudden commencement (SSCs) before the main storms, and also have the short recovery periods. The sudden jumps of the solar wind velocities and IMF-Bz are also consistent with occurrence of the CMEs. Moreover, this effect can be traced in changes of Earth magnetic field during geomagnetic storm and quiet days. The observed CME-driven storms can produce highly variable magnetic fields on the transformers and provide forced outages, however the studied outages have not been recognised as those one driven by a geomagnetic storm.