FERC assisted the US Department of Energy in determining the root causes of the blackout that occurred on August 14-15, 2003. This page contains relevant statements by the Commission on the blackout, the progress of the investigation, and other related topics.
For details of the investigation, please visit the Department of Energy’s website.
February 6, 2006 - DOE and FERC submit Transmission Monitoring Report to Congress.
April 13, 2005 - Information Technology Guidelines For Power System Organizations.
February 4, 2005 - Staff issues Reactive Power Supply and Consumption Report, requesting comments by April 4, 2005 Letter from Chairman | Report | Event Details.
September 30, 2004 - Report on use of grid reliability funds sent to Congress (Staff Report sent to Congress) Transmittal Letter.
September 8, 2004 - Commission sends final Vegetation Management Report to Congress.
July 15, 2004 - The Commission is planning a summer 2004 Reliability Workshop in Cleveland, Ohio Event Details.
April 14, 2004 - FERC takes prompt action in response to Blackout Task Force recommendations; outlines power reliability Policy Event Details | Order (PL04-5) | Order (EL04-52).
April 5, 2004 - US-Canada Task Force releases its final report on causes and recommendations from the August 14, 2003 blackout Chapters 1-3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapters 7-10 | Appendices.
March 2, 2004 - Utility Vegetation Management Final Report.
January 8, 2004 - New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) issues their interim report Read More.
December 24, 2003 - The Commission has ordered FirstEnergy Corp. to pay for an independent study of the state's power grid, where the massive August blackout started. They have 120 days to study the stability of the power grid Letter.
December 18, 2003 - Joint US-Canada power system outage Task Force Utility Vegetation Management Initial Report Report.
December 16, 2003 - Technical conference and blackout presentations set for conference in Philadelphia, PA Event Details.
November 19, 2003 - US-Canada power system outage Task Force released their Interim Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout Report | Presentation.
November 18, 2003 - Electricity restructuring: 2003 blackout identifies crisis and opportunity for the electricity sector GAO-04-204 Report.
September 12, 2003 - US-Canada blackout investigators release chronology DOE News Release | Report
Chairman Wood's Statements
August 20, 2003 - Chairman Wood's statement on US-Canada Joint Task Force investigating the recent blackout.
August 15, 2003 - Chairman Wood's statement on the Power Failure in the US and Canada
Congressional Testimony
November 20, 2003 - Chairman Wood's testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee regarding the Joint Task Force Report Blackouts. United States Senate.
September 10, 2003 - Chairman Wood's testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Committee on Governmental Affairs. United States Senate.
September 3, 2003 - Chairman Wood's testimony before the Committee on Energy and Commerce. United States House of Representatives.