INDEPTH: POWER OUTAGE
Final Report: Joint Canada - U.S. Task Force
CBC News Online | April 5, 2004
"Final Report on the August 14, 2003, Blackout in the United States and
Canada: Causes and Recommendations"
The August 2003 blackout across Ontario and the U.S. East Coast was
preventable and urgent action is needed to prevent a repeat, a
binational panel said in its final report, issued Monday, April 5, 2004.
"Failure to implement the recommendations would threaten the
reliability of the electricity supply that is critical to the economic,
energy and national security of our countries," said the panel, which
included Natural Resources Minister John Efford and U.S. Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham.
The main recommendation is to force companies to comply with
reliability standards. "Voluntary compliance with reliability rules is
no longer adequate," the panel said.
Key recommendations in the 238-page report include:
- Implement mandatory and enforceable electricity
reliability standards in both the U.S. and Canada, with heavy penalties
for non-compliance.
- Strengthen the institutional framework of the North American
Electric Reliability Council (NERC).
- Increase funding for NERC and the regional reliability councils in
order to maintain their independence from the parties they oversee.
- Address deficiencies identified in FirstEnergy and some
reliability organizations in the U.S., by June 30, 2004.
- Strengthen the technical recommendations made by NERC on
Feb. 10, 2004.
- Improve training and certification requirements for operators,
reliability co-ordinators and operator support staff.
- Increase the physical and cyber-security of the
network.
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