2003 ELECTRICAL POWER OUTAGE IN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES: ANALYSIS, ASSESSMENT, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This report presents and analysis and an assessment of the August 2003 electrical power outage in Canada and the United States. The report also includes recommendations relevant to the handling of future incidents of this type. The structure of this report is as follows: (a) event summary; (b) problem confronting emergency services; (c) effects on emergency services (debriefing; preparations; responses; and lessons learned); (d) STEEP assessment; and (e)recommendations.
The U.S./Canada Power Outage Task Force (2003) established an event sequence that defined the chronological initiation and progress of events that led to the electrical power outage that affected parts of the northeastern United States, parts of the United States Midwest, and parts of Eastern Canada on 14 August 2003. The sequence of events identified by the Task Force was as follows (U.S./Canada Power Outage Task Force, 2003):
12:05:44-to-13:31:34: Three generator trips [1757 MW] - two in Northeastern Ohio and one in Eastern Michigan
14:02:00: Transmission line disconnect [345 KV] Southwestern Ohio
15:05:41-to-15:45:33: Four transmission line disconnects [1380 KV] Northeasters and Northern Ohio
16:06:03-to-16:09:06: Three transmission line disconnects [1035 KV] Northeastern and Northern Ohio
16:09:23-to-16:10:27: Two generator trips [700 MW] Central Michigan
16:10:00-to-16:10:38: Four transmission lines disconnect [1380 KV] Northern Ohio and Northeastern Michigan
16:10:04-to-16:10:38: Twenty-one generator trips [3439 MW] Northern Ohio and Northeastern Michigan
16:10:40-to-16:10:44: Four transmission lines [1150 KV) disconnect between Pennsylvania and New York
16:10:41: Two transmission line disconnects (690 KV) and two generator trips [1868 MW) in Northern Ohio
16:10:42-to-16:10:45: Generator trip [820 MW] in Western Michigan; a...