Analysis & Mitigation of Geomagnetic Induced Current on Power System

Solar storms is a condition that effects various systems and power equipment’s. During solar storms a geomagnetic induced current (GIC) starts flowing through long conductor such as power cables and system. When this Geomagnetic Induced Current flows through a transformer it saturate the core, which then leads to increase in reactive power consumption and harmonics in the power system and heating of the transformer. Harmonics levels can cause protective relays to sense wrong and trip the circuit this can lead to a problem such as loss of production, blackouts. Heating of transformers can also lead to permanent damage to parts and replacement of it. A mitigation technique to reduce the effects of geomagnetic induced currents (GICs) on high-voltage power systems. The method consists of connecting switching devices at the neutral grounding connection point of transformer banks. Only one transformer bank needs to be grounded through a switch.