PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — OSU researchers have completed an electrical mapping project that will help protect the U.S. power grid.
Adam Schultz, a professor of geophysics at OSU and lead investigator on the electrical mapping project, says the difference with this project is that the data was released immediately.
When the project began in 2006, researchers placed instruments every 70 kilometers across the Americas to study subsurface energy. Large devices were shipped to stations for several months to collect data.
The original goal of the project was to determine the structure and evolution of the North American continent. The original goal was achieved, but over time a new opportunity arose.
“It became obvious that the data we were collecting was very important to the electricity industry because, for example, we recently had a large aurora that was visible in Oregon in May and, in fact, this past week,” Schultz said.
Effects of space weather, such as the geomagnetic storms we have experienced recently, can put a strain on the grid, and it is not designed to handle that.
Shultz explains that in extreme cases, this can lead to a blackout in parts of the power grid. The last time this happened was in 1989 and affected the province of Quebec and the northern states of the USA.
“The data will help the energy industry determine the intensity of the geomagnetic storms that we recently experienced with the Aurora Borealis. So this is a big topic and our data will help the energy industry determine the intensity of the geomagnetically induced currents that they can expect,” Schultz said.
Schultz adds that the Department of Homeland Security has identified impacts on critical infrastructure.
“In this way, we are helping to mitigate the risks to the entire infrastructure that everyone in this country depends on,” he says.
