While a recent geomagnetic solar storm–the strongest in seven years–sparked excitement for the appearance of the aurora borealis, it also raised concerns over potential communication and electricity blackouts across the state of California.
Reaching its peak on Oct. 7, the storm disrupted several localized power grids across the state, but no major blackouts directly resulted from the storm. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center classified the storm as a G4, or “severe,” storm.
Between Oct. 4 and 6, intense solar winds of around 1200 to 1300 kilometers per second collided with Earth’s magnetic field. This phenomenon can cause electric currents to run along conductors, such as power lines, resulting in electricity surges that can damage grids.
“This GMD (geomagnetic disturbance) recently, I certainly didn’t hear about it,” said John Smith*, a PG&E worker in the engineering department. “I do work in the emergency operating center sometimes, usually when there are some major outages, which didn’t seem to be the case for this particular instance.”
Among the small number affected was Devyn Oliveira, a sophomore at Carlmont High School.
“I was about to make dinner when the lights went out. Luckily, they fixed it quickly,” Oliveira said.
Although the storm raised concerns, it brought on an exciting occurrence as well: the aurora borealis.
Draped over the sky, these glittering blankets of green and blue were seen in parts of Northern California and as far south as Sacramento. This rare occurrence attracted the attention of photographers and astronomers alike.
“I was visiting my grandchildren in San Francisco when I first heard about it,” said Kamala Venkatesh, an astrophotographer. “I immediately grabbed my camera and set out to find a suitable location. I had always wanted to go to the North Pole and photograph the lights, but instead, they came to me. It was beautiful and haunting, looking at something we can’t control.”
Thankfully, power grid failures for this type of storm were unlikely due to the mechanism of the California power grid.
“You can imagine the grid as a system of roads. There are multiple ways to get home. For instance, if 280 was down, you could still take 101 home,” Smith said. “To mitigate power outages, we run less power on both 280 and 101 at the same time so homes still get power, but the grid can handle power surges.”
Thinking about this recent power outage, Oliveira and others worry for the future, when advancing technology may be more susceptible to the whims of nature.
“What happens if the entire state loses power?” Oliveira said. “This solar storm was handled well, but we need to make sure we are prepared for the future when we’re depending on technology even more.”
It is also of concern that solar storms—among other natural phenomena—have been increasing in severity and frequency over the past decade. Many power grids struggle to remain resilient during these episodes, making the need to keep the lights on across California an increasingly pressing issue.
“These low frequency, high impact events are typically not planned for because they happen every 100 years,” Smith said. “But it seems like recently they are happening much more frequently. There’s a lot of discussion around the narrative for revising operation standards.”
*This source’s name is changed to protect them from legal harm. For more information on Carlmont Media’s anonymous sourcing, check out Scot Scoop’s Anonymous Sourcing Policy.
