Anyone Work With GIC Protection?

[Rubycon]

Geomagnetic Induced Current (GIC) from spaceweather events.
Specifically cathodic systems to prevent early failure of underground pipelines.

I bring this up as the activity is quite high, down to about 44GW from a high earlier near 70GW.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Intersting did not realize that could affect stuff like pipelines. I guess this is something they need to account for in Alberta with all the oil rigs and oil sands etc. I found an app that shows real time aurora map and tend to look at it now and then. I tend to be very shy of the visible line though but get northern lights here every now and then.

One day I still want to experiment with picking up the actual RF it produces.

 

[Rubycon]

Hemispheric power affects a lot of things including natural activity.
It's not hard to rig a receiver to hear SWA.

 

[John Connor]

What is GW? And why is lower more?

 

[Unico]

GW is the abbreviation for gigawatt.

If the hemispheric power (measure of energy per unit of time) due to aurora is lower the induced current into electric power grids and pipelines would be reduced. In the case of electric power grids the induced current can cause excessive current at substations resulting in them going offline. A 1989 geomagnetic storm knocked out the Hydro Quebec gird disrupting power to 6 million people.

Pipelines use cathodic protection to minimize corrosion to the steel pipes. Cathodic protection introduces a small electric current which causes a buried sacrificial anode to corrode rather than the pipeline. Induced current from aurora disrupts this balance leading to the pipeline being unprotected from the elements.

 

[John Connor]

So what you are saying is that we depend on high GW for our infrastructure?

 

[Rubycon]

No, it is actually disruptive at higher levels. Severe X class flares can cause widespread power outages. It's believed today, if a Carrington type event occurred, the impacts to global economy and social services could be severe to devastating.

 

[Unico]

So what you are saying is that we depend on high GW for our infrastructure?

Hmm, no. Excessive Geomagnetic Induced Current would be damaging to our infrastructure. Electric utilities and pipeline operators make design decisions to minimize the impact of these high GW influcences.

 

[John Connor]

That's what I thought. I read what was posted wrong.

 

[Mike64]

So what you are saying is that we depend on high GW for our infrastructure?

That's what I thought. I read what was posted wrong.

[ETA: Oh well, I didn't realize the last post was 3 weeks old, but that aside, ] as far as its impact on pipelines is concerned, it's not the absolute level that's important, it's the fluctuations that cause trouble... If those were really frequent and strong, presumably a variable voltage solution could be implemented, but that would obviously cost a lot more than the simpler "constant voltage" devices currently used.

 

[Rubycon]

Conjugate tracking systems would indeed be expensive!

 

[John Connor]

Can't say I have. LOL!