[Legacy Report] Geomagnetic Disturbances - Advanced Power Technologies

#Geomagnetic #Disturbances

Geomagnetic storms have occurred since the dawn of our solar system. With our more connected world, there is a concern among federal regulators in the United States for action by Electric utilities within North America to ensure uninterrupted service across the Grid in the event of a significant geomagnetic magnetic disturbance (GMD). GMD’s can cause significant geomagnetically induced current (GIC) to flow in transmission lines that adversely impact power transformers connected to these transmission lines. Because GIC is quasi-dc, this puts a burden in terms of reactive power flow that could potentially cause a voltage collapse because of the system’s inability to handle the added var flow. One additional issue since power transformers are not designed to handle dc is the potential for core saturation. Core saturation causes current harmonics to be generated and cause internal heating that under certain conditions as happened at a PSE&G GSU transformer to fail at their Salem Creek Nuclear facility during a K9 GMD event in 1989. There is also the potential for relay mis-operation, and possible damage to capacitor banks, static var compensators and even breakers in the switchyard.

This talk will cover the following topics:

1. The science of GMD events
2. How a GMD event affect communication and electrical power systems
3. Discussion of the new IEEE C57.163-2015™ -- “Guide for Establishing Power Transformer Capability while under Geomagnetic Disturbances”
4. A strategy by an independent system operator (ISO) to handle GMD events
5. A practical solution for monitoring and mitigating GMD events based on a real-world use case.
6. Final thoughts on the implications of what the future holds should a GMD event were to occur.

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• South Plainfield, New Jersey
• United States

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• Co-sponsored by Michael Miller