Power Play: Protecting the Power Grid

Utilities make fixes after big 2003 blackout

October 01, 2004 — CSO — BUSINESS CONTINUITY Where were you when the lights went out? Fifty million North Americans found themselves asking that question in August 2003, after a series of mishaps triggered massive blackouts on Aug. 14 that darkened large parts of the Midwest and Northeast United States and Ontario, Canada, at a cost of more than $4 billion.

A joint U.S.-Canadian task force report issued in April 2004 blamed bushy trees, sagging power lines and human error for knocking out 345-kilovolt lines in Ohio, and for starting a cascade of events that toppled the region's electrical grid. The report specifically cited a problem (common to past blackouts) of inadequate operator training and a shirking of industry guidelines for safe operation. The task force also uncovered new culprits, such as failures in the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that manage the area's electrical grid and an inability of operators at regional power facilities to spot problems developing in the complex, deregulated power system.

One year later, U.S. power providers have corrected many of the problems that led to the August 2003 blackouts, but bigger changes may be in the works, says Bryan Lee, a spokesman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a federal agency that regulates gas, oil and electricity transmissions.

"There's been lots of tree trimming," Lee says, adding that regional utilities stung by the blackout have also upgraded computer systems.

In addition, utilities are adhering more closely to voluntary guidelines issued by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), a power industry group that sets standards for and monitors the nation's electrical grid.

With loose oversight from the federal government, utilities were lax in complying with NERC standards before the blackout. FERC has since issued a policy statement outlining how utilities should adhere to NERC's voluntary rules but lacks the regulatory authority to directly oversee the reliability of the power grid, Lee says.

That could change if legislation currently pending in Congress is passed. That legislation, which is part of a controversial omnibus energy bill, gives FERC statutory backing to oversee utilities.