U.S. Must Take Space Storm Threat Seriously, Experts Warn

Originally posted by AboveTheTrees

Severe "damage in capacitators" sounds quite vague to me too, or even not reason enough..., but (playing the worst-case) I imagine if we were hit by a solar storm that could effectively "burn" all our equipments down, it would take some time to restore them all back.
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It wouldn't burn out all capacitors or all equipment, even during a severe event.

If you look at the article again, it says "capacitors that are connected to the power grids".

That is because the power lines act a bit like a giant antenna that "picks up" the power from a solar storm, so anything that is directly connected to that grid might overload and blow.

All our gadgets and appliances (domestic and industrial) would be fine since they are not physically connected to "giant aerials".

Don't get me wrong, if lots of power grids were damaged by a severe storm, it would cause chaos, and lives would probably be lost, but even in an extreme case, it would likely only be confined to regions near the poles, which is where the Earth's magnetic field is weakest. The closer to the Equator you are, the safer your power grids are.

It is a good thing we have the capability to watch for solar flares,.
we can have plenty of time to react to situations such as anything
relating to our power generation and distribution,.
If utilities and generation stations stay on top of things we shouldnt
have anything to worry about. except a planned outtage.
I brought the question up at a Doble conference last year, about planned brown outs.
due to the increasing solar activity.
They (department heads) are aware of the potential scenario
and "should " act accordingly. for example: SDG&E keep guys stationed
at "important "substations ready to disconnect the unit in the event of something catastrophic,
therefor avoiding any long term grid failures.
FYI,. it takes about 30 to 40 days to build a distribution transformer.
and most of the big corps are back logged about 9 months already,. so it is
not like we could call our local transformer co. and say I need a unit ASAP.
You can bet they will be on top of this issue,.

Thanks to the OP for the wise forewarning.
A couple of weeks or so ago ,things went a bit strange with the Pay TV satellite here in Australia, usually the satellite signal is lost for a few seconds around dawn, but in this instance it happenned around midday as well.
On checking ,the day corresponded with a solar radiation event of some sort, sorry I have forgotten the exact nature of this solar event.
I started my working life as an Electrical Worker no one wants to deal with a cranky capacitor.