Industries Electric Reliability
FERC assisted the US Department of Energy in determining the root causes of the blackout that occurred on August 14-15, 2003. This page contains relevant statements by the Commission on the blackout, the progress of the investigation, and other related topics.
For details of the investigation, please visit the Department of Energy’s website.
February 6, 2006 - DOE and FERC submit Transmission Monitoring Report to Congress
April 13, 2005 - Information Technology Guidelines For Power System Organizations
February 4, 2005 - Staff issues Reactive Power Supply and Consumption Report, requesting comments by April 4, 2005 Letter from Chairman | Report | Event Details
September 30, 2004 - Report on use of grid reliability funds sent to Congress (Staff Report sent to Congress)
Transmittal Letter
September 8, 2004 - Commission sends final Vegetation Management Report to Congress
July 15, 2004 - The Commission is planning a summer 2004 Reliability Workshop in Cleveland, Ohio Event Details
April 14, 2004 - FERC takes prompt action in response to Blackout Task Force recommendations; outlines power reliability Policy News Release | Event Details | Order (PL04-5) | Order (EL04-52)
April 5, 2004 - US-Canada Task Force releases its final report on causes and recommendations from the August 14, 2003 blackout Statement by Chairman Wood | Chapters 1-3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapters 7-10 | Appendices
March 2, 2004 - Utility Vegetation Management Final Report
January 8, 2004 - New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) issues their interim report Read More
December 24, 2003 - The Commission has ordered FirstEnergy Corp. to pay for an independent study of the state's power grid, where the massive August blackout started. They have 120 days to study the stability of the power grid Letter
December 18, 2003 - Joint US-Canada power system outage Task Force Utility Vegetation Management Initial Report Report
December 16, 2003 - Technical conference and blackout presentations set for conference in Philadelphia, PA Event Details
November 19, 2003 - US-Canada power system outage Task Force released their Interim Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout Report | Presentation
November 18, 2003 - Electricity restructuring: 2003 blackout identifies crisis and opportunity for the electricity sector GAO-04-204 Report
September 12, 2003 - US-Canada blackout investigators release chronology DOE News Release | Report
Chairman Wood's Statements
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August 20, 2003
August 15, 2003
Congressional Testimony
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November 20, 2003
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Chairman Wood's testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee regarding the Joint Task Force Report Blackouts
United States Senate
September 10, 2003
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Chairman Wood's testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Committee on Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
September 3, 2003
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Chairman Wood's testimony before the Committee on Energy and Commerce
United States House of Representatives