Star Wars? Space Weather and Electricity Market: Evidence from China

Tong Wu,Mengqi Gong,Zhe You,Jinhua Cheng

doi:10.3390/en14175281

Tong Wu, Mengqi Gong + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175281

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Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the impact of space weather on China’s electricity market. Based on data products provided by NOAA and the National Energy Administration in China, this paper uses solar wind velocity as a solar weather indicator and the disturbance storm time index as a magnetospheric weather indicator to match monthly Chinese electricity market data over 10 years. Based on a VAR model, we found that (1) space weather increases the demand for electricity in China, and solar wind speed and the geomagnetic index increase the electricity consumption of the whole of Chinese society, as space weather mainly increases the electricity consumption of the secondary and industrial sectors. (2) The geomagnetic index significantly promotes power station revenue. (3) Space weather is associated with increased energy consumption. The geomagnetic index significantly increases the coal consumption rate of fossil power plants in China, but the solar wind speed has nothing to do with the coal consumption rate of fossil power plants.

Highlights

Introduction from ChinaEnergies 2021, 14, 5281.A clear understanding of the power market trends and influencing factors contributes to more scientific power system planning and contributes to better the implementation of energy conservation and coal emission reduction policies
To explore more areas of how space weather impacts the electricity market, in this paper, we mainly focus on how space weather influences the electric energy consumption of society, the power station revenue, and the coal consumption rate of fossil plants
Using the vsw as a proxy for solar proxy for geomagnetic activity, the results show that solar activ tivity can promote societal electric energy consumption and in t

Summary

Introduction

A clear understanding of the power market trends and influencing factors contributes to more scientific power system planning and contributes to better the implementation of energy conservation and coal emission reduction policies. Many physicists have proven that space weather has a disastrous impact on electricity infrastructure. Space weather could largely change the temperature conditions, global navigation satellite systems, and power grids, which play key roles in the electricity market. Little economic literature focusses on how space weather influences the electricity market. As dangerous space weather phenomena frequently occur and with large amounts of uncertainty, these events cost the world more than USD 2.7 trillion every year [1] and will be the biggest black swan events over the course of the decade, as reported by Deutsche

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