Contributor: Leonard Bohmann, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
On August 14, 2003 the power went out in Canada and much of the northeastern United States. The outage was caused by many factors including the lack of routine maintenance and situational awareness. One outcome of this failure is that the US and Canada have established procedures and checks for the distribution system that cross international borders. What caused this situation? How has the management of the electrical distribution network changed since this outage? What were the ethical issues involved in this blackout?