VIDEO: John Kappenman on Solar Storm Grid Impact

“Latest Advances in Solar Storm Grid Impact Modeling and Mitigation” by John Kappenman.

Dupont Summit, December 7, 2012. Storm Analyisis: Mr. John Kappenman, a leader or participant in many of the FERC, NERC, EPRI, Academy of Sciences and NATO studies on the issue provided a quick update of the technical issues that the industry and FERC are considering as part of the proposed ruling. He gave an orientation as to why past extreme space weather predictions often failed to distinguish the most significant impacts on power grids and how the industry has been spotty in collecting and sharing data on impacts to transformers and generators. He continues to call for fuller and transparent data collection and analysis by power utilities while taking currently available measures to protect the long-lead time transformers and generators from damage. He mentioned some of the technologies that the inventors of these technologies would cover later in the afternoon. Mr. Kappenman is noted to be a consistent challenger to the industry’s lack of standards and concern in this area and has borne the brunt of much of the resulting industry push-back.