[ianburrell]

I read that it is fairly easy to protect equipment by grounding it. But that requires properly grounding lots of gear, and the power companies aren't willing to spend the money.

Also, the Carrington event has plenty of notice before arrives at Earth. It would be possible to shut down the grid, and maybe disconnect all the transformers. It would require a cold start, but better to shutdown for a day than forever. The problem is that this requires the power companies to practice for a shutdown and cold start.

[pixl97]

A Carrington event has notice, but there are plenty of, rather low probability, space weather events with no notice that can do the same thing. It's best if you're not facing down the barrel of a quasar.