Space Weather: The Economic Impact of Space Weather on the Electricity Market: A Comparative Analysis

Catholic University Of America, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The PIs have recently developed an econometric model to examine the impact of space weather on the wholesale price of electricity. They have worked with the "PJM" power pool in eastern North America, incorporating Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Previous results have indicated the presence of space weather effects on the price of electricity. In fact, these results show that the real-time price is affected by even moderate geomagnetic storms and that the estimated average impact is a nontrivial 4.5 percent of the real-time PJM price. This new proposal seeks to refine the original estimate using local magnetometer data as a measure of space weather, as opposed to the Dst index that had been exploited previously. The PIs also want to examine the space weather impact on other power grids, including "NordPool" (the power grid for Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark), the California Power Pool, and others.