Re:A Warning from History: The Carrington Event Was Not Unique
by mikewarot on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @06:10PM
(#27124225)
The main thing to worry about is induced DC currents causing transformer cores to saturate, which instantly makes them into heaters, dissipating all incoming power.
DC blocking capacitors can be installed, or circuits to detect the saturation or DC current, or... cheapest of all in terms of equipment.... Shut down the grid before the storm hits, turn it back on when it is over.
No equipment required, but lots of political courage. A "black start" event isn't easy, but plans exist for them.
Are contemporary surge protectors enough to protect home/office equipment? How about the power grid? Would the kinds of changes we're talking about making to enable the grid to handle renewable energy protect against this? What about the Internet? Is data center surge protection strong enough?
Should power and networking companies keep a stockpile of equipment offline so we can have minimal connectivity after one of these events? With COVID and the shipping delays we're seeing, keeping stockpiles seems like a really good idea anyway.