Source: Slashdot: Hardware
A new AGU Advances study maps specific vulnerabilities in the US grid to extreme geomagnetic events—which occur roughly every 100-200 years—revealing that transformers in the Upper Midwest and Northeast face the highest risk of permanent damage. A direct hit could cripple the bulk power system for months, since replacement transformers take 12-18 months to manufacture and the grid lacks strategic reserves. Utilities and regulators have historically underfunded hardening against low-probability, high-consequence events. The risk map shifts the conversation from abstract catastrophe to specific infrastructure that needs redundancy today.