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Economic Aspects of Space Weather on the Power Grid Space Weather Workshop 2008 Ben Damsky
Economic Aspects of
Space Weather on the
Power Grid
Space Weather Workshop 2008
Ben Damsky
2© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Assume a model utility is hit5,000 MW of generation3,000 employees3,000,000 population served1,000,000 in a metropolitan area
Method:
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Consider costs from 2 viewpoints:The utilityThe whole society
Method:
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Consider costs for 3 differentstorm magnitudes:• 200A (Moderate)• 400A (Large)• 800A (Very Large)
Method:
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What does it costa utility to respond
to a GIC alert?
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Stop trans maintenance work:- 50 men @ $50 per hour- 8 hours of stoppage
Total: $20K per day
Cost to utility of GIC Response
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Use non-economic dispatch:- 20% of 5,000 MW- added cost $10/MWHr
Total: $100K per 10 hr
Cost to utility of GIC Response
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What does it costa utility when a
solar storm hits?
9© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Loss of life to 5 xfrms:- Each $100K
Total: $500K
Moderate Storm (200 A)Cost to utility
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Moderate Storm (200 A)Cost to utility
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Loss of a GSU:- Profit $50M- Depreciation $25M- Idle workers $4M- Transformer $1M
Total: $80M
Large Storm (400 A)Cost to utility
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13© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
City without power:- Sales less fuel $794M- Idle workers $60M- Transformers $20M
Total: $874M
Very Large Storm (800 A)Cost to utility
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What does it costsociety when a very
large solar storm hits?
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US GNP $44,000 annual per capita- $170 per working day- Assume 80% lost: $136- City of 1M people
Total: $136M/day, $680M/week
“GNP” for a City
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City without power:- Reduced GNP $8.8B
Wide area outage:- Reduced GNP $13.6B
Total: $22.4B
Very Large Storm (800 A)Cost to society
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Dorothea Lange
21© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Possible utility costs of moderate, large and very large GIC events
y = 3E-07x5.3857
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
100000000
1000000000
10000000000
100
Amps
$
22© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Possible societal costs of moderate, large and very large GIC events
y = 8E-13x7.7256
1000
10000
100000
1E+06
1E+07
1E+08
1E+09
1E+10
1E+11
100
Amps
$
23© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
24© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
25© 2007 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
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