On April 05, 2016 the city of Rio de Janeiro hosted at the Furnas Hall, the Workshop on GIC to disseminate the advances in this area made in Brazil and in other several countries and their effects on that systems.
At the Workshop, the participants had the opportunity to learn with some of the greatest international experts on this issue and to know what has been done on this subject by USA, UK, Japan, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and Brazil.
The GIC measurements began late in 1859 when a natural event of great proportions affected the Earth’s magnetic field. Despite its magnitude, the only person who gave attention was the astronomer Richard Carrington, ever since this event has been known as the Carrington Event. At that time, telecommunications were restricted to the telegraph and the modern transmission lines had not even been imagined. If something similar happened today the effects on technological systems could cause remarkable impact on the society.
Back, solar Flare emission from 05/12/2006 by the X-ray imager on board GOES-12 satellite GOES-12. Front, sunspot draw made by R. Carrington in 01/09/1859 (Copyright: Royal Astronomical Society). Source: NASA
Recent advances in geophysics showed that the effects on power systems can vary greatly among different countries, mainly due to the magnetic latitude and ground conductivity, which can greatly influence the magnitude of the effects. Moreover, the shape and materials of the transformers and their connection can also interfere on the GIC amplitude. Besides, the transmission line configurations. The complexity of the phenomena related to the chain of space weather events, which starts at the Sun and reach the ground transformer make GIC one of the most interesting phenomenon in electricity.
The specialists invited for this event were Dr. Ener Salinas (ABB researcher), Dr. William Radasky (President of Metatech Corporation), Alexandre Pinhel (Furnas Engineer), Trond Ohnstad (Electrical Engineer of Norwegian Power Grid Company-Statnett), Dr. Trevor Gaunt (Emeritus Professor at University of Cape Town), Dr. Clezio de Nardin (Head of the Embrace/INPE) and Dalton Oliveira C. Brazil (National Operator System technical advisor and coordinator of study committee at Cigré Brazil).
From the right: T. Ohnstad, Dr. W. Radasky, D. Oliveira Brazil, A. Pinhel, Dr. C. M. de Nardin, Dr. T. Gaunt, Dr. E. Salinas