Power Grid is “Particularly Vulnerable to Bad Space Weather”
For many it’s either tin foil conspiracy theory or an action packed Hollywood Armageddon flick. For the National Aeronautics and Space Administration it’s a serious threat, with the potential to wipe out the technologically driven lives we’ve become so used to.Our sun is approaching a period of high turbulence, referred to as the solar maximum, with many scientists suggesting a peak in activity around 2013. The cycle occurs every 11 years, and the next time around it is predicted to be one of the weakest in decades. However, some contrary opinions hold that the next solar maximum may be stronger than we expect, citing a 26,000 year galactic alignment cycle, scheduled to occur on or around 2012, eerily coinciding with the end of the Mayan calendar.One organization that isn’t taking any chances is NASA. As the sun begins to awaken, scientists are keeping a close eye on space weather:
“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”
The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.
A 132-page NASA funded report titled Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts, suggests that the right magnitude storm could be devastating:
The problem begins with the electric power grid. “Electric power is modern society’s cornerstone technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend,” the report notes. Yet it is particularly vulnerable to bad space weather. Ground currents induced during geomagnetic storms can actually melt the copper windings of transformers at the heart of many power distribution systems. Sprawling power lines act like antennas, picking up the currents and spreading the problem over a wide area. The most famous geomagnetic power outage happened during a space storm in March 1989 when six million people in Quebec lost power for 9 hours.
According to the report, power grids may be more vulnerable than ever. The problem is interconnectedness. In recent years, utilities have joined grids together to allow long-distance transmission of low-cost power to areas of sudden demand. On a hot summer day in California, for instance, people in Los Angeles might be running their air conditioners on power routed from Oregon. It makes economic sense—but not necessarily geomagnetic sense. Interconnectedness makes the system susceptible to wide-ranging “cascade failures.”
What I don’t understand is why the utility companies don’t seem to be taking this issue seriously. Issues such as cascade failure (regardless of original source of the problem), and EMP/CME vulnerabilities seem to be ignored. IF the are taking it seriously, they are not communicating this to the public.
Maybe its like a rental property and a slum lord. Maybe they’ll just wait until they have to spend the money to fix the issue. If they don’t have to they can keep golfing and yachting. The worse that can happen to the power companies is they will have to charge more if there were an emp type event. Less electricity t ogo around costs you more, sorry. Lots of repairs to do on the grid, gonna cost normal peeps more, sorry. All the while they will keep golfing and yachting.
Or something so earth destroying is on its way gubmints around the globe can just keep kicking the can down the road until the end since in the end there will be no need to fix or repair any of this stuff.
The magazine “Armchair General” had a good article on this last summer about a strategic analysis of the effects from an EMP or solar flare singularity. The intelligence analyst who wrote the article, Ralph Peters, pretty much showed an apocalyptic view of an EMP, stating that millions would die within months of an EMP attack, and the international community would do nothing, since it would be considered a “soft kill.” This threat is a huge deal, and most people are not even aware of the threat of the grid going down for months let alone being prepared for it. If you take a look at the recent power outages in Washington DC most people couldn’t imagine the power being out for a whole week, and an EMP or solar flare event would be much worse than a temporary outage.