Citation
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
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