It missed us by 9 days

Modern transformers on the power grids have spark gap equipment attached as well as a lot of other equipment in the power substation specifically for dealing with lightening strikes as well as power surges from solar flares. The power lines stretched over the lands act like secondary windings on transformers so the solar flares which are high in electromagnetic energy induce much higher voltages on those lines than they normally experience. The spark gap equipment will bleed those high voltages directly to ground protecting the transformers. on the receiving ends of those power lines coming into a city or some other populated area that taps into the power grid.
It's true that in the past that there have been power outages due to transformers being blown up, or damaged by solar flares, but todays systems are equipped to deal with this, so no need to be a chicken little and run around in fear.