[Milsurplus] Coronal Mass Ejection

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Just to be fair to the utilities, all of the ones I know of are regulated by various public utility commissions (or equivalent bodies). They can recover (invest in) the cost of those things the commission allows and not recover the costs of the items that are not on the list. The people you need to convince are the politicians on the commission….. A very similar issue is the move in some states to require that local distribution all be done underground by this or that date.. 

Bob

On Aug 1, 2014, at 2:21 PM, Bruce Gentry <ka2ivy at verizon.net> wrote:

> According to many things I have read,  a CME causes  a low frequency but extreme  magnetic field. Damaging individual devices is fairly unlikely if they are not connected to the power line. Devices powered by batteries or generators on the premesis with no connection to power lines would probably be spared.  The transmission, and to  lesser degree, local distribution networks, are vulnerable because they act like huge loops, sort of like windings in a generator or transformer. They would develope fluctuating DC superimposed on the AC in power distribution transformers, but that can be greatly reduced or even eliminated by installing huge capacitors between the lines and transformers to block the DC. This has been recommended, but utilities don't care about anything except their profits in the next 15 minutes and refuse to consider the investment. The other precaution is to shut off the power grid and disconnect the transmission lines from transformers before the particles arrive and keeping it off until until the event is over. That would not be easy or popular, but a few hours without power would be far better than none at all for months or years.
> 
>    Bruce
> 
> 
> 
>> On 8/1/2014 8:57 AM, Peter Gottlieb wrote:
>>> 
>>> Does anyone really know the kind of surge/interference a CME would cause?  Is it a low frequency event which mostly disrupts things like the grid due to it being such a large antenna? 
>> 
>> Peter, all -
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