IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2016 - 63

These coronal mass ejections, superimposed on the regular
"solar wind" flow of plasma from the sun, would have
a considerable effect on the Earth's magnetic field.

(a)

(b)

(c)

figure 4. (a) An auroral display (source: NASA), (b) a special camera shot of the aurora (courtesy of Kyle Reiter, University of Athabasca, Alberta), and (c) an auroral display (courtesy of Ashton Reimer, SuperDARN Canada radar at Saskatoon
operated by the University of Saskatchewan).

sinusoidal ac waveform becomes severely distorted, with a
spike of current every time the ac and Gic combine to push
the transformer into saturation. The transformers' increased
reactive power demand can lead to system stability problems, while the distorted ac waveform is rich in harmonics
that can affect other equipment.

magnetic substorm at 2:44 a.m., which caused a surge of
Gics across the hydro-Québec system. These Gics caused
the saturation of many power transformers, causing them to
draw more reactive power while turning them into strong
sources of harmonics. The extra reactive power could have
been supplied by special static var compensators (sVcs)

Sequence of Events in March 1989
The sequence of magnetic disturbances experienced in
Québec on 12-14 march is illustrated by the recordings
from the ottawa magnetic observatory (Figure 5). The
sharp jump in the magnetic field, known as the sudden
storm commencement (ssc), can be seen as the small jump
in the X trace at 8:30 p.m. esT and indicates the compression of the magnetosphere resulting from the arrival of
the cme launched from the sun a few days earlier. The
first build-up and release of energy from the cme/magnetosphere interaction resulted in a magnetic substorm at
10 p.m. esT on 12 march. a second magnetic substorm
followed at 1 a.m. on 13 march, producing Gic disturbances that were strong enough to affect the hydro-Québec power system, causing voltage fluctuations. system
operators had sufficient time to perform the shunt-reactor
switching necessary for transmission system voltage control. however, the third build-up of energy from the cme/
magnetosphere interaction, at 2:44 that same morning,
produced a very intense magnetic substorm that severely
impacted the hydro-Québec system.
The sequence of principal events leading to the blackout
is listed in Table 1, and the location of these events is shown
in Figure 6. These events were triggered by the onset of the
november/december 2016

Hydro-Québec
Blackout
X
SSC
Substorms

1,000 nT

Y
Z

00:00
19:00

06:00
01:00

18:00 UT 24:00
12:00
07:00
13:00 EST 19:00
13 March 1989

figure 5. The northward (X), eastward (Y), and downward
(Z) components of the magnetic field recorded at the Ottawa Magnetic Observatory on 13 March 1989. This shows
the SSC due to the arrival of the CME from the sun followed
by a series of substorms. The rapid onset of the third substorm caused the blackout of the Hydro-Québec system.
(Courtesy of Natural Resources of Canada.)
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2016