Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations
TL;DR
Blackout affected 55 million people across Northeast US and Canada
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Definitive analysis of the 2003 Northeast blackout affecting 55 million people. Demonstrates how cascading failures can overwhelm supposedly redundant transmission lines when they share common grid physics - as one line failed from overload, power rerouted to other 'redundant' lines, overloading them sequentially.
Key Findings from Force (2004)
- Blackout affected 55 million people across Northeast US and Canada
- Cascading failures overwhelmed redundant transmission pathways
- Lines weren't truly independent - shared same electrical grid physics
- N-1 criterion insufficient for correlated cascade failures