Eastern Interconnection Solar‑storm Risk

A Carrington‑scale geomagnetic storm could cause cascading failures concentrated in the Eastern U.S. grid, leaving an estimated 5.1 million people and 135,000 businesses without power and costing roughly $1.5–$2 billion per day. The study models proprietary grid topologies and shows that single‑point voltage events (e.g., in Maine) can propagate across the interconnected eastern network, prolonging outages where spare transformers and alternative paths are scarce. — This reframes solar‑weather preparedness from a niche scientific concern into a national infrastructure and economic policy issue that requires targeted hardening, spare‑equipment strategies, and regulatory attention.