Concept of power grid resiliency to severe space weather

Abstract

Space weather (SW) as a type of natural hazard can trigger disasters resulting in large number of fatalities and economic losses. In the recent history, this has happened twice: in, 1989, in North America, and in, 2003, in multiple mid- and high-latitude regions. Population growth and wider usage of technologies sensitive to reliable and high quality electricity supply increase the economic loss in case of such an event recurrence. Contrary to other natural hazards, industry has little real-work operational experience. SW’s echo on Earth affects large geographic areas and may result in simultaneous loss of multiple network elements. The used N-1 principle for ensuring power grid resiliency is not adequate in this case. Hence, enhancing the grid’s resiliency to such an event is of high interest. In this paper, the concept of boosting power grid resiliency to SW is given. First, the idea of SW impact on power grid and the role of critical factors of different nature are described. The list of actions for enhancing power grid resiliency to SW is given in the second part of the paper.