Research : Current

Powerless Power Plants
Date: August 14, 2003 Location: Northeast United States and Canada More Information: [image]

In August an enormous power grid outage of as-yet-unknown origin caused much of the northeast US and southeast Canada to be without power. Investigation continues to the present day but so far no satisfactory reason has been found for this freak happening which left hundreds of thousands without electricity for several days. It is thought that the age and condition of the power grid contributed to the rapid shutdown of the grid but no good explanation has been forthcoming as to why the failsafe systems throughout the grid did not protect other portions of the grid from becoming part of a massive cascade of shutdowns.