stock here, first time Linkedin has been useful, LOL
A solar storm killed 21,000 MW of grid in 92 seconds.
That was March 13, 1989. It can happen again next Tuesday.
Six million people. Nine hour blackout. One geomagnetic impulse and the strongest utility in North America watched its grid disappear before operators finished their coffee.
Here’s the cascade:
GIC into transformer neutrals → DC flux offset → half cycle saturation → magnetizing current near 10 pu + harmonics everywhere → SVCs trip on harmonic + control stress → voltage slides from 1.00 pu to 0.20 pu → 735 kV lines drop out → blackout
Why this is NOT old news:
↳ The grid is bigger and more inverter based today
↳ Modern STATCOMs and SVCs are MORE harmonic sensitive, not less
↳ Carrington (1859) was 5-10× larger, and the statistical odds of a repeat are ~12% per decade
↳ Most utilities still don’t have GIC-monitoring relays installed
1989 wasn’t a story about the Sun. It was a story about a grid that wasn’t designed for what physics threw at it. Every grid in 2026 has the same problem.
Your call: what’s the single upgrade you’d push first, DC-blocking neutral resistors, GIC monitoring relays, hardened SVCs, or shorter lines?
https://www.swsc-journal.org/articles/swsc/full_html/2020/01/swsc190079/swsc190079.html
