SGER: Space Weather and the Electricity Market

Catholic University Of America, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The investigators will determine the impact of adverse space weather conditions on the electricity market. The main effort is to by formulate an econometric model of electricity supply in which space weather conditions, because they impact the transmission of electricity, are a variable. The work addresses the economic consequences of space weather events. While some of the economic impacts are fabled within the space weather community (e.g. Quebec Hydro in 1989), to date no one has systematically documented and quantified the true economic costs. The research proposed here will begin to rectify that shortcoming. The fundamental reason why space weather may adversely impact the performance of the power grid is because adverse space weather conditions can interfere with the transmission of electric power. Specifically, the power transmission grid can act as an "antenna" of sorts, picking up geomagnetically-induced currents (GIC) at distances of hundreds of kilometers. The GIC are the result of electric currents high in the atmosphere of Earth (at ionospheric altitudes), produced by geomagnetic storms and sub-storms as the magnetosphere interacts with disturbances in the solar wind.