Update on the U.S. - Canada Joint Task Force

Investigation of the Power Outage

David L. O’Connor

Commissioner

Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources

Massachusetts Electricity Roundtable

September 19, 2003

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Task Force Scope and Members

• Identify the causes of the power outage and seek solutions to prevent future outages.

• Task Force is jointly chaired by:- U.S. Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham - Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, Herb Dhaliwal.

• Other Task Force members include:- U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge- U.S. FERC Chairman, Pat Wood- U.S. NRC Chairman, Nils Diaz- Canadian Deputy Prime Minister, John Manley- Canadian National Energy Board Chairman, Ken Vollman- Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission President, Linda Keen

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Three Work Groups

• Electric System Working Group- Will develop a complete reconstruction of events surrounding the

power outages and identify reasons why the system failed.

• Nuclear Working Group- Will identify all relevant actions by nuclear generating facilities in

connection with the outage. -

• Security Working Group- Will develop a complete account of all security events that may have

contributed to the power outage.

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An Initial Chronology of Events

• On Friday, September 12th, the Task Force released a timeline. (Found on U.S. DOE website: www.energy.gov)

• Provides the sequence of some significant events that led to the blackout.

• Focuses on events on major transmission facilities (230 kV and greater) and at large power plants.

• No evidence so far points to a cyber event.

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Nuclear Work Group Findings

• Of the 104 licensed units in the U.S.

- 4 units were shut down at the time of the outage- 9 units experienced grid disturbance and automatically shut down

(NY, NJ, Ohio, Michigan)

- 70 units observed some level of grid disturbance, but accommodated the disturbance and stayed on-line

- 21 units did not experience any disturbance

• All the U.S. nuclear plants that tripped have restarted.

• No information suggests that any of the U.S. nuclear power plants triggered the outage.

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Next Steps

• Once the Task Force determines the causes of the blackout, it will formulate recommendations to address specific problems they uncover.

• These will likely focus on technical standards for operation and maintenance of the grid, and on the management performance of grid operators.