Workshop Report--Simulating Space Weather Extremes: A Workshop to Identify Research Needs to Improve Power Grid Resilience to Geomagnetic Activity

In 2019, the Convergence Hub for the Exploration of Space Science (CHESS) project was awarded as (to date) the only space science-focused project in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Convergence Accelerator program. The concept of the convergence accelerator is that national-scale societal challenges cannot be solved by a single discipline. Instead, these challenges require convergence: the merging of innovative ideas, approaches, and technologies from a wide and diverse range of sectors and expertise. CHESS brought this idea to the Sun-to-Society system, the goal being to understand the threats posed by space weather and to build more resilient societal infrastructure to address those threats, starting with the power grid. A workshop awarded through the NSF Space Weather Program (Award Number: AGS-2131047) was held between April 12-14, 2022 in Washington DC as a natural evolution and next step for the CHESS project: “Simulating Space Weather Extremes: A Workshop to Identify Research Needs to Improve Power Grid Resilience to Geomagnetic Activity.” The three-day workshop brought new understanding to the complex Sun-to-power grid system by converging the range of involved communities to identify the research and development and operational gaps and proposed solutions for those gaps. The novel workshop structured the convergence through a hypothetical space weather-to-power grid ‘simulation game,’ a low-risk, cost-effective environment to unite researchers, decision-makers, and operators to assess the preparedness for threats and hazards posed by space weather impacts on the electric power grid