Eastern daylight time, a highvoltage power line in northern ohio brushed against some overgrown. On august 14, 2003, an enormous electrical blackout struck the northeast and upper midwest of the united states and a large part of western ontario, canada, leaving about or aboot in the great white north 55 million people without electricity for a period lasting between 7 hours and 2 days. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific american. Chinese hackers may have been responsible for the recent power outage in florida, and the widespread blackout that struck the northeastern u. Moving forward on lessons learned from the blackout of 2003. As will be shown, the 2003 northeast blackout was heavily based in these concepts. Is it weird that i would absolutely love another one of those. A map of the states and provinces affected by the w. The 2003 northeast blackout, 10 years later photos a decade ago today, more than 50 million people lost power during the great northeast blackout of 2003. In 2003, a series of unfortunate events turned out the lights for some 50 million people across the northeast, including cleveland, detroit, toronto, ottawa, and new york city. More than 50 million people across eight northeastern u.
August 2003 northeast blackout nerc worked closely with the joint uscanada task force and all affected entities to investigate the causes of the august 14, 2003 blackout. The investigation cited a software glitch, inadequate. The task force responsible for investigating the cause of the aug. This week marked the tenyear anniversary of the northeast blackout, a power outage that occurred along the entire northeast of the united states and parts of canada back on august 14 th, 2003. For some customers, power was not restored for nearly four days. On august 14 th, 2003, a blackout affected northeast america and canada in which millions of people were affected. The ohio phase of the august 14, 2003, blackout was caused by deficiencies in specific practices, equipment, and human decisions by various organizations that affected conditions and out comes that afternoonfor example, insufficient reactive power was an issue in the blackout, but it was not a cause in itself. The report makes clear that this blackout could have been prevented and that immediate actions must be taken in both the united states and canada to ensure that our electric system is more reliable. Initial blackout timeline 1 august 14, 2003 outage sequence of events u.
As far as i can tell this has been covered up by the government. Fifteen years ago tuesday, a power company software glitch plunged large swathes of the northeast u. Business continuity lessons from the blackout of 2003 cio. The main cause of this disaster was a software bug in the energy management system used by firstenergy corporation, located in akron, ohio. This is what failed the company responsible for the new software should be held responsible. The northeastern blackout 2003 the blackout report. To nobodys surprise, the final report on the blackout released by a. At this writing, it appears that the 2003 blackout started in facilities owned and operated.
Blackout details and timeline the details of the 2003 blackout will now be summarized, but a more thorough investigation of the matter can be found in 1. Senior full stack developer software engineer scrum agile. The blackouts proximate cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of firstenergy, an akron, ohiobased company, which rendered. What began as a software bug in the electrical grid of ohio soon escalated into a catastrophic event that left nearly 45 million americans without power, ultimately becoming the worst blackout in north. Software bug in the alarm system in the control room of firstenergy the northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states, and the canadian province of ontario on august 14, 2003, beginning just after 4.
The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and the canadian province of ontario on thursday, august 14, 2003, just after 4. The company points out, quite rightly but also narrowly, that it is too soon to tell whether its tripped power plant and lines were the cause or effects of the northeast blackout. On august 14, 2003, a series of faults caused by tree branches touching power lines in ohio, which were then complicated by human error, software issues, and equipment failures, led to the most widespread blackout in north american history. Software bug contributed to blackout kevin poulsen, securityfocus 20040211. Satellite images of the night before left and night after right the 14 august 2003 blackout. Its been 15 years since the 2003 blackout that left metro. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and the canadian province of ontario on thursday, august 14, 2003, just before 4. We investigated mortality in new york, ny, during the largest blackout in us history august 1415, 2003. Ten years later, we are still grappling with concerns over the vulnerability of the power grid. The atlantic has put together a photo essay of the event and how it impacted new yorkers, including those stuck in the citys transit systems. Nine years ago, a blackout crippled the american northeast for two days.
Its been a decade since the great northeast blackout cut power to over 45 million people across the northeastern and midwestern united states and 10 million people in ontario, canada. The tripping of the sammisstar 345kv transmission line prompted the outcome propagating across borders and turning into a cascading blackout which affected eight states and two provinces in canada. In more remote areas it took nearly a week to restore power. The 2003 northeast blackout, 10 years later photos. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading focus. The northeast blackout of 2003 posted in light pollution. Canada power outage task force september 12, 2003 this is an outline of significant physical and electrical events that occurred in a narrow window of time, before and during the cascade that led to the blackout of august 14, 2003. Poor tree management, insufficient communications between electric utilities in the. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of new york, cleveland and detroit, as well as toronto and ottawa, canada. Ten years ago today, large portions of the midwest and northeast united states and into canada went dark.
New york news coverage of the northeast blackout of 2003. Technical analysis of the august 14, 2003, blackout nerc. It traced the root cause of the outage to the utility company firstenergys failure to trim back trees encroaching on highvoltage power lines in ohio. The southwest blackout of 2003 1218 words bartleby. Deadlock, northeast blackout of 2003, heartbleed, buffer overflow, therac25, memory leak, cloudbleed, shellshock. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later on august 14, 2003, shortly after 2 p. The map shows an entire state or province as red, when in some cases only a small portion e. The great north america blackout the story shortly after 4 p. The power outage that left 50 million wo electricity retro report the new york times duration. Significant information and reports about the blackout investigation are posted below. The cascading event, which started shortly after 4. A number of factors and failings came together to make the august 14th northeastern blackout the worst outage in north american history. Eastern daylight time, a highvoltage power line in northern ohio brushed against some overgrown trees and.
On august 14, 2003, more than 50 million people across eight u. Software bug in the alarm system in the control room of firstenergy the northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states, and the canadian province of ontario on. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific. Home 10 years after the 2003 northeast blackout ten years ago today, large portions of the midwest and northeast united states and into canada went dark. The precipitating cause of the blackout was a software glitch in the alarm system in a control room of firstenergy corporation, causing operators to be unaware of the need to redistribute the power load after overloaded transmission lines had drooped into foliage. Remembering the 2003 northeastern blackout in toronto. The northeast blackout of 2003 was one of the most critical blackouts in the history which affected more than 50 million people in both the united states and canada. The blackout was, in fact, triggered on a hot day by an untrimmed tree in ohio and was aided by a hung alarm system. Disaster companies have likely taken this into consideration when creating backup systemsthe northeasts massive blackout of 1965 introduced the concept of overlapping power grids. Many others did not get their power back until two days later. This greatly exaggerates the actual area of the blackout. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets.
One of them was buried in a massive piece of software compiled from four million lines. Northeast blackout of 2003 wikimili, the best wikipedia. A previouslyunknown software flaw in a widelydeployed general electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the august 14th northeastern u. The outage occurred after the market had closed and, for kingdon at least, only lasted about 12.
Business continuity lessons from the blackout of 2003. Et, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. The northeast blackout of 2003 light pollution cloudy. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation computerworld. As i sit here and plan a drive 3 hours to a blue zone in ny murphy hill state forest anyone been there.
Fifteen years ago, a software bug resulted in over 50 million people losing. The blackout that exposed the flaws in the grid the new. The blackout started at 4pm on august 14 th, and lasted for an estimated 31 hours in new york city when the power was finally restored the blackout cut off lights and air conditioning, especially in. The day of the blackout one of the networks reported that homeland security installed new software a few days before the blackout. The media centre for ontarios independent energy system operator ieso noted that the blackouts causes stemmed from inadequate procedures and operations in the state of ohio, as outlined in final report on the august 14, 2003 blackout in the united states and canada. Tougher regulatory measures are in place, but were still a long way from a smart power grid. The northeast blackout struck 15 years ago today extremetech. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and the. In some respects, kingdon capital management lucked out with the northeast blackout of august 2003. A major outage knocked out power across the eastern united states and parts of canada on august 14, 2003. An aging electrical grid, a series of technology flaws and a few overgrown trees led to a cascading series of outages stretching from new york city to ohio and up into ontario, canada. In a matter of seconds, large portions of ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, massachusetts, new york, connecticut, new. Final report on the august 14, 2003 blackout in the united.