Northeast Nearly Normal After Billion Dollar Blackout

WASHINGTON, DC, August 18. 2003 (ENS) - On this first morning rush hour since last week's blackout that affected more than 50 million people in the United States and Canada, things are returning to normal. Power has been restored across the U.S. Northeast and Ontario, commuter trains and subways were running on time in New York. Grocers are restocking their shelves after the two day loss of power caused millions of dollars worth of perishables to spoil.

But energy officials are warning that rolling blackouts are still possible today as workers draw down the power supply, and they warned everyone to conserve energy.

The cause of the blackout is still unknown. The United States and Canada have agreed to form a joint task force to identify the causes of the recent power outage that affected North America and to seek solutions to help prevent future outages.

The task force will be jointly chaired by U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal. The two officials have scheduled their first meeting for Wednesday in Detroit.

Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal (Photo courtesy Ministry of Natural Resources)

"More than 50 million people in two nations suddenly lost electricity in this blackout," said Abraham. "It put many people in potential personal danger, it cost the U.S. and Canadian economies millions of dollars, and it inconvenienced everyone. We owe our citizens an explanation of this incident and an assurance that steps will be taken to address the cause."

Federal, state, provincial, and local authorities, as well as private sector electricity providers, will be invited to contribute to the work of the task force.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (Photo courtesy Energy Department)

On Saturday, Michehl Gent, president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), warned that while all electric systems affected by the disturbance have returned most customers to normal electric service, rotating blackouts are still possible in Detroit and Ontario.

“NERC is conducting a thorough investigation into this event in conjunction with the regional reliability councils and their member utilities, and in coordination with federal, state, and provincial agencies,” said Gent. “We will publicly report our findings as soon as possible. Please understand that we need to collect a great deal of additional data and information before we are able to draw definitive conclusions about the root causes of this outage,” he said.

NERC is a not-for-profit company formed as a result of the Northeast blackout in 1965 to promote the reliability of the bulk electric systems that serve North America.

In Detroit, DTE Energy announced Saturday morning that the power systems of its 2.1 million customers were restored in an unprecedented manner. Never before has DTE had to conduct a complete restart, bringing all power generating units online with no internal startup power available.

The power outage caused the Detroit Water Department's pumps to stop Thursday night, and water pressure in the Genesee County system began to drop to dangerous levels. Boil water orders were issued for anyone on the Detroit water system, and remained in effect over the weekend. This morning those orders were rescinded, but a ban on outdoor water use is still in effect.

In Cleveland, the power is back on, and FirstEnergy, which serves the region, says there is no firm evidence that it was to blame for the widespread power failure, as some officials said Friday.

In a statement issued today, FirstEnergy said the transmission grid across the Eastern Interconnection, not just within its own system, was experiencing unusual voltage and frequency fluctuations and load swings on the grid as early as noon on Thursday.

The coal fired Niagara Mohawk power plant on a peninsula of Lake Erie (Photo courtesy NREL)

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien praised the people of Ontario for their "patience and community spirit" and encouraged Ontarians to limit power use "to aid in the restoration of power and to put safety first in their activities in the coming days."

Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli told the capital city's non-essential government workers to stay home from work until further notice to help ease the stress on the province's electricity system.

"The bottom line is that there is not enough power to meet the normal needs of the province. Every resident, business and government has been asked to reduce hydro consumption by 50 percent to prevent another blackout. The city of Ottawa is doing its part, and I'm asking everyone else to do theirs," said Chiarelli.

The Ontario Ministry of Energy anticipates that rotating blackouts might be necessary throughout Ontario "as a result of increasing demand and insufficient conservation." Water and energy conservation measures by residential, business and industrial consumers need to continue, the Ontario Ministry of Public Safety and Security said in a statement. Businesses are also being asked to conserve energy, avoiding using air conditioning, billboards and lights at night.

Three units at Bruce Nuclear are operating and its fourth unit is expected on line today. Darlington Nuclear Plant is also expected back on line today and Pickering Nuclear Plant by the end of the week.

Public transit in Ottawa is running as usual, but people in the city are being asked not to fill up their cars. There is not enough gasoline to go around as the oil companies attempt to get their supply systems back to normal.

The city's water supply and water treatment plants are fully operational, but 51 boil water orders remain in effect across Ontario and 39 sewage treatment plants are still affected by the outage.

The U.S. Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) said today that the blackout was "predictable and avoidable." AEE Executive Director Al Thumann said, "The need for a balanced energy policy plan has never been greater. A plan which relies on the implementation of energy efficiency technologies, distributed generation plans, supply and demand side options and renewable energy technologies is a must if our nation is to have a reliable power grid."

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Peak Load Management Alliance in a joint statement today emphasized the critical role of demand response and distributed resources in addressing grid reliability issues.

Electricity is once again flowing along power lines across the Northeast and Ontario. (Photo courtesy NREL)

The two organizations have been working to create a new international demand response project called Demand Response Resources, aimed at the ability to deliver demand response into any competitive electricity market, in the United States or internationally, on very short notice.

Demand response may be the only short-term solution to grid reliability problems related to overloading from peak demand, they said.

"The problems experienced by the Northeast part of the U.S. on August 14th are not unique to the region or even the U.S.," said Hans Nilsson, chairman of the IEA Demand Side Management Programme. "We are facing much of the same problems in Europe, Asia and throughout the world."

"The reserve capacity is shrinking in the electricity systems of many industrialized countries, and we believe the international community, working on a collaborative basis, will deliver solutions to address our common issues. We invite all regulators, utilities, industry leaders, and technology companies wishing to participate in the process to join us in New York in September."

The IEA and PLMA will hold meetings in New York City on September 8 through 10 focused on U.S. and international grid reliability problems and the demand side solutions to address them.