CBC News
August 14, 2006

As Monday marks the third anniversary of the blackout that cut power to 50 million people in Ontario and parts of the northeastern United States, some energy experts say there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again.

Some critics blamed the problem three years ago on a lack of enforceable rules governing the many independent power producers on the gird. They say the same problems remain to this day.

J.A. Casazza, a former executive with a New Jersey-based power company and the founder of PEST (Power Engineers Supporting Truth), says there are many different power suppliers all connected to the same grid, and they don’t all operate to the same standards.

That, he says, is a recipe for another blackout.

"When you have a lot of different participants trying to make a power system work, you have a great deal of problem co-ordinating, particularly when an emergency occurs," says Casazza.

Ontario’s independent suppliers meet standards

Terry Young, spokesperson for the Independent Electricity System Operator, which monitors the province’s power system, says more independent suppliers in Ontario don’t put the system at a greater risk.

"All of these companies coming into the industry are aware of the standards under which they must operate," says Young.

Young points out that stronger standards for electricity producers have been introduced since the blackout.

Blackout a wake-up call for suppliers

Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, says the blackout was a wake-up call to power providers.

Since then, he says all the major transmission utilities have invested money in upgrading their systems but adds that stepped up conservation efforts are still needed to help prevent a large-scale shortage.

The cause of the blackout, according to a Canada-U.S. joint task force, can be traced back to a power plant in Ohio.

FirstEnergy’s East Lake plant shut down unexpectedly on Aug. 14, 2003, triggering a series of problems on its transmission line that set off the cross-border blackout.

Residents in Ontario, parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, were left in the dark.