A few thousand neutral grounding resistors could protect the United States from EMP

A few thousand neutral grounding resistors could protect the United States from EMP

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H.R. 668, the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage (or SHIELD) Act is a bill before congress which would require that the most critical components of America’s electrical infrastructure be secured against the threat posed by a potentially catastrophic electromagnetic pulse.

It has been proposed to add some fairly small and inexpensive resistors in the transformers’ ground connections. The addition of that little bit of resistance would significantly reduce the amount of the geomagnetically induced currents that flow into the grid. In its simplest form, it’s something that might be made out of cast iron or stainless steel, about the size of a washing machine. It is still at the conceptual design phase, but we think it’s do-able for $40,000 or less per resistor. That’s less than what you pay for insurance for a transformer.

GE sells neutral grounding resistors.