Characteristics and effects of electromagnetic interference from UHVDC and geomagnetic storms on buried pipelines

•The characteristic analysis for the influence of the grounding pole current on the pipeline shows that the high-power UHVDC project that began in recent years impacts pipelines that are within 180 km from the grounding pole. It was found that the stray current and PSP offset are related to the extreme value, while the distance to the pipeline, the grounding pole current, the distance between the insulating flanges at the two sides, the operation of the potentiostat, and their impact mechanisms are very complex.•The characteristic analysis for the influence of geomagnetic storms on pipelines shows that the GIC and PSP offsets are related to the rate of change for the geomagnetic field dH/dt. The pipeline GIC is quasi-DC, and the dynamic DC interference has a more significant impact of pipeline corrosion. Determining the effects of the GIC on pipeline corrosion and prevention are the goals of future research.•Comparisons of the influence and effects of the two interference sources on the pipeline shows that their difference is in the underlying mechanism, the range and intensity of the influence, the corrosion rate of the stray current, and the PSP offset. The influence intensity of the grounding pole current is greater, but the duration is shorter and its influencing range is smaller. The geomagnetic storm interference has the characteristics of a long duration and large influence range.