Comment by shakna
16 hours ago
They won't affect your phone or laptop, but transformers along the longer ranges of the grid are unprotected.
An X-class flare won't do anything. But in the size of the article? Localised temporary blackouts would be entirely unsurprising.
> They won't affect your phone or laptop, but transformers along the longer ranges of the grid are unprotected.
They actually are. Protection against lightning strikes and atmospheric electricity is a part of the design for the high-voltage lines.
CMEs might cause enough additional load on the lines to cause them to trip if they are close to failure already, and this is well-recognized and can be mitigated by load-shedding early.