Geomagnetic Induced Currents (GICs) estimations for Portugal mainland - Top 8 geomagnetic storms of solar cycle 24

Geomagnetic Induced Currents, or GICs, are electric currents induced in conductive infrastructures (such as power lines and pipelines) due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field. GICs can cause power outages, damage transformers and other electrical equipment, and interfere with the operation of pipelines.

We present here the GIC estimation for all the high voltage lines (150, 220 and 400 kV) over mainland Portugal for the eight most intense geomagnetic storms during solar cycle 24. The induced electric field is calculated from geomagnetic series obtained at Coimbra or San Fernando magnetic observatories, according to the Nearest Neighbour method and from 31 magnetotelluric soundings (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7147543).

The GIC peak and standard deviation values for each substation are listed in the dataset. The criteria used for the definition of the geomagnetic storm duration in order to compute standard deviation values are based on the Ebre Observatory tables (https://www.obsebre.es/en/rapid) and the Hutchinson et al. (2011) criteria for the storm beginning and end, respectively.