Electricity Restructuring:
2003 Blackout Identifies Crisis and Opportunity for the Electricity Sector
GAO-04-204: Published: Nov 18, 2003. Publicly Released: Nov 18, 2003.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
- Accessible Text:
Contact:
(202) 512-6877
contact@gao.gov
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov
The August 14, 2003, electricity blackout--the largest in the nation's history--affected millions of people across eight northeastern and midwestern states as well as areas in Canada. The blackout intensified concerns about the overall status and security of the electricity industry at a time when the industry is undergoing major changes and Americans have a heightened awareness of threats to security. Because of these widespread concerns and the broad institutional interest of the Congress, we (1) highlighted information about the known causes and effects of the blackout, (2) summarized themes from prior GAO reports on electricity and security matters that provide a context for understanding the blackout, and (3) identified some of the potential options for resolving problems associated with these electricity and security matters.
While the root cause of the blackout has not yet been conclusively established, a recent DOE report describes a sequence of events that culminated with the outage. A series of power plants and transmission lines went offline beginning at about noon eastern daylight time because of instability in the transmission system in three states. The loss of these plants and transmission lines led to greater instability in the regional power transmission system, which--4 hours later--resulted in a rapid cascade of additional plant and transmission line outages and widespread power outages. The blackout affected as many as 50 million customers in the United States and Canada, as well as a wide range of vital services and commerce. Air and ground transportation systems shut down, trapping people far from home; drinking water systems and sewage processing plants stopped operating; manufacturing was disrupted; and some emergency communications systems stopped functioning. The lost productivity and revenue have been estimated in the billions of dollars. A joint U. S.-Canadian taskforce is seeking to identify the root cause of the failures and plans to issue an interim report in November 2003. Over the past several years, our work on the electricity sector has resulted in numerous findings, conclusions, observations, and recommendations. Based on this prior work, we highlight three themes on electricity and security matters in our briefing and lay out some of the potential options to consider in addressing problems in these areas. Electricity markets are developing, but significant challenges remain. Our work has shown that while the electricity sector is in transition to competitive markets, the full benefits of these markets will take time and effort to achieve. Oversight of markets and reliability needs more attention. The ongoing transition to competitive markets, or "restructuring" of electricity markets, has dramatically changed how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) needs to oversee these markets and the information it needs to do so. Security for critical infrastructure is of growing importance. Our work has shown that a reassessment of the security of the nation's physical infrastructure as well as that of related information technology and control systems should be undertaken.
Dec 10, 2020
-
Uranium Management:
Actions to Mitigate Risks to Domestic Supply Chain Could Be Better Planned and CoordinatedGAO-21-28: Published: Dec 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 10, 2020.
Dec 8, 2020
-
Offshore Wind Energy:
Planned Projects May Lead to Construction of New Vessels in the U.S., but Industry Has Made Few Decisions amid UncertaintiesGAO-21-153: Published: Dec 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 8, 2020.
Nov 19, 2020
-
Nuclear Waste Disposal:
Better Planning Needed to Avoid Potential Disruptions at Waste Isolation Pilot PlantGAO-21-48: Published: Nov 19, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 19, 2020.
Oct 29, 2020
-
Nuclear Safety:
DOE and the Safety Board Should Collaborate to Develop a Written Agreement to Enhance OversightGAO-21-141: Published: Oct 29, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 29, 2020.
Oct 15, 2020
-
Nuclear Weapons:
NNSA Plans to Modernize Critical Depleted Uranium Capabilities and Improve Program ManagementGAO-21-16: Published: Oct 15, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 15, 2020.
Jul 24, 2020
-
Nuclear Weapons:
Action Needed to Address the W80-4 Warhead Program's Schedule ConstraintsGAO-20-409: Published: Jul 24, 2020. Publicly Released: Jul 24, 2020.
Jun 24, 2020
-
National Nuclear Security Administration:
Analyzing Cost Savings Program Could Result in Wider Use and Additional Contractor EfficienciesGAO-20-451: Published: Jun 24, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 24, 2020.
Jun 9, 2020
-
Nuclear Weapons:
NNSA Needs to Incorporate Additional Management Controls Over Its Microelectronics ActivitiesGAO-20-357: Published: Jun 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 9, 2020.
May 13, 2020
-
Environmental Liabilities:
DOE Needs to Better Plan for Post-Cleanup Challenges Facing SitesGAO-20-373: Published: May 13, 2020. Publicly Released: May 13, 2020.
May 12, 2020
-
Hanford Waste Treatment Plant:
DOE Is Pursuing Pretreatment Alternatives, but Its Strategy Is Unclear While Costs Continue to RiseGAO-20-363: Published: May 12, 2020. Publicly Released: May 12, 2020.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here