2003 blackout timeline

It went straight down from 300 megawatts to zero. 3 coal-fired power plant near Grand Haven, Mich., trips off.— 4:10 p.m. A 345-kilovolt line known as Hampton-Thetford, in Michigan's thumb region, trips.— 4:10 p.m. A 345-kilovolt line known as Oneida-Majestic, in southeast Michigan, trips.— 4:11 p.m. Orion Avon Lake Unit 9, a coal-fired power plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, trips.— 4:11 p.m. A transmission line running along the Lake Erie shore to the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo, Ohio, trips.— 4:11 p.m. A transmission line in northwest Ohio connecting Midway, Lemoyne and Foster substations trips.— 4:11 p.m. As directed by you, the Task Force has completed a thorough investigation of the causes of the August 14, 2003 blackout and has recommended actions to minimize the likelihood and scope of similar events in the future. Numerous power transmission lines in Michigan trip.— 4:25 p.m. Indian Point nuclear power plants 2 and 3 in Buchanan, N.Y., shut down automatically after losing power.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Significant information and reports about the blackout investigation are posted below. All market data delayed 20 minutes. task force of U.S. and Canadian officials. or redistributed. The Enrico Fermi Nuclear plant near Detroit shuts down automatically after losing power.— 4:17-4:21 p.m. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the space of just a few hours on the hot, humid afternoon of Aug. On this day in 2003, a major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. All market data delayed 20 minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. The report makes clear that this blackout could have been prevented and that immediate

All rights reserved. All rights reserved. a return to normal operations.A blackout report is released by a Extra power coursing through FirstEnergy's Hanna-Juniper 345-kilovolt line heats the wires, causing them to sag into a tree and trip.— 3:41 p.m. An overload on First Energy's Star-South Canton 345-kilovolt line trips a breaker at the Star switching station, where FirstEnergy's grid interconnects with a neighboring grid owned by the American Electric Power Co. AEP's Star station is also in northeastern Ohio.— 3:46 p.m. AEP's 345-kilovolt Tidd-Canton Control transmission line also trips where it interconnects with FirstEnergy's grid, at AEP's connection station in Canton, Ohio.— 4:06 p.m. FirstEnergy's Sammis-Star 345-kilovolt line, also in northeast Ohio, trips, then reconnects.— 4:08 p.m. Utilities in Canada and the eastern United States see wild power swings. On August 14, 2003 the East Coast of the United States, and even parts of Canada, went dark at around 4:10 p.m. Twenty-one power plants shut down in … All rights reserved (Power is restored to most metropolitan areas and major cities begin Fifty million people lost power in eight states and parts of Canada.Though some problems began earlier, the actual blackout did not began until shortly after 4 p.m. EDT. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, The Perry Unit 1 nuclear reactor in Perry, Ohio, shuts down automatically after losing power.— 4:11 p.m. The already lowered voltage coursing to customers of Cleveland Public Power, inside the city of Cleveland, plummets to zero. Some key moments:— 2 p.m. FirstEnergy Corp.'s Eastlake Unit 5, a 680-megawatt coal generation plant in Eastlake, Ohio, trips off. operator training and trees too close to power lines.