General Information
- Final Report on Implementation of Task Force Recommendations (Issued Oct. 3, 2006) and the press release information
- Report on Competition v. Reliability per Rec. 12 of Aug. 2004 Blackout Investigation Final Report
- Draft Report on Implementation of the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force Recommendations
- Notice of June 22 Conference For Public Review of Draft Report on Implementation of the U.S. - Canada Power System Outage Task Force Recommendations.
- Competition & Reliability in North American Energy Markets — Technical Workshops in the U.S. on September 15, 2005 and Canada on September 28, 2005
- Is Our Power Grid More Reliable One Year After the Blackout?
- The August 14, 2003 Blackout One Year Later: Actions Taken In The United States & Canada To Reduce Blackout Risk
- Final Report on the August 14th Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations
For more information go to the US Department of Energy or the Natural Resources Canada websites.
Statements & Comments
- Public comment period open until 5:00 PM, June 29, 2006 on Draft Report on Implementation of the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force Recommendations. Public comments can be submitted to blackoutimplementationstatusrpt@energetics.com.
- April 5, 2004 - Secretary Abraham Releases Statement on Final Blackout Report
- Summary of comments from Forum and Email. January 12, 2004 - This Excel file is a summary of all comments and recommendations received by DOE on the Blackout Report via email and the Blackout Forum as of 1-12-04.
- Industry Technical Conference on August 14 Blackout Transcript 12-16-03
- Summary of comments from meeting. December 16, 2003 - This Excel file is a summary of all comments submitted at the 12-16-03 meeting.
What Happened?
August 14 and 15, 2003 - The northeastern U.S. and southern Canada suffered the worst power blackout in history. Areas affected extended from New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey west to Michigan, and from Ohio north to Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario. Approximately 50 million customers were impacted, and the economic costs will be staggering.
The outage in the news
- New York Times coverage
- Washington Post: "Blackout 2003
- Canada's National Post
- August 15, 2003: Slate.com, "This Was a First-World Blackout"
- August 21, 2003: The Economist, "Bring me your powerless masses"
- August 27, 2003: Energy Pulse, "a forum for experts, professionals, and thought leaders in the global power industry": a number of articles, including "Asking the Right Questions about the August 14th Black-Out"
North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) press releases: a history of the event
- August 14, 2003:Preliminary Disturbance Report
- August 15, 2003:Power Outage Update
- August 16, 2003:Power Outage Update
- August 17, 2003:Electric System Update
History of previous major power blackout events
- 1965 blackout George Mason University, Blackout History Project
- 1977 blackout George Mason University, Blackout History Project
- March 2003: Business Week, "Power Plays"