Magnetospheric driving of GICs in the Swedish power grid
- Reference number
- FID22-0005
- Project leader
- Dimmock, Andrew
- Start and end dates
- 230801-270731
- Amount granted
- 2 500 000 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics
- Research area
- Life Science Technology
Summary
The main objectives are to determine: 1."Are there any transmission lines that are high risk to GICs? 2."How solar wind and magnetospheric dynamics drive GICs in the Swedish power grid. 3."Deliver a PhD thesis that strengthens ties between academia and industry in a key strategic research area. M00-M04: Review of literature, datasets, and introducing fundamental analysis methods. Work package 1 (M04-M16): Power lines susceptible to high currents will be identified from the strength of currents for a given time. Work package 2 (M 16-M36): Investigation of the connections between GICs and the solar wind. In addition, the connection to magnetospheric processes such as substorms and magnetospheric compressions will be studied. Work package 3 (M36-M48): In the final part, the doctoral student is given increased influence and freedom to start his own independent line of research. One possibility is to connect the GIC model to space plasma simulations to systematically study how GICs in power grids are driven by solar wind conditions. The expected results for this project are: 1."Transmission lines susceptible to GICs in Sweden are identified. 2."The importance of substorms and solar wind conditions to GICs will be substantially improved. 3."A tangible and long-term connection between the academic and industrial research activities for GICs in Sweden will be established.
Popular science description
The Sun continually emits a stream of charged particles (mostly ions & electrons) that travel outward usually around 400 km/s. In some situations, the violent eruptions from the Sun will throw blobs of plasma outwards at a few thousand km/s. These eruptions are known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and together with the ambient solar wind, have a profound impact on society by causing what we know as space weather. The term space weather refers to the changing conditions on the Sun and near-Earth space that can impact technology and society as a whole. Similar to atmospheric weather, we would like to both accurately predict it and fully understand the potential impacts. The goal is to both avoid negative effects altogether and develop mitigation strategies. Space weather is the result of the complex interaction between the solar wind and CMEs, and the magnetosphere, which is a magnetic “bubble” formed by the internal magnetic field of the Earth. Fortunately, the magnetosphere protects us from harmful radiation from other things such as solar flares and cosmic rays. However, the interaction between CMEs and the magnetosphere can be dangerous for our technology and result in effects such as errors in GPS signals, radio communication disruption, and damage to long-conducting systems (e.g., pipelines, railways, power grids). It is the disruption to the power grid that this project aims to address. During certain solar wind conditions, and CMEs, the geomagnetic field measured on the Earth's surface begins to rapidly fluctuate. This is caused by internal processes in the magnetosphere but also the sudden compression from the impact of the blob of plasma. Since the earth underneath the surface is conductive, as well as seawater, then there is a geomagnetic induction, similar to how we take advantage of electrical induction to make electricity with generators. The result can be unwanted currents entering large conducting systems such as power grids that can damage transformers or cause blackouts due to tripping from the excess voltage. These currents are called geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). Understanding the impacts of GICs required bridging the gap between the academic research community (space physics) and the expertise of industrial power grid operators. This project aims to advance our understanding of how space weather impacts the power grid and strengthen the ties between academia and industry.