A surge of electricity to western new york and canada touched off a series of power failures and enforced blackouts yesterday that left parts of. A previouslyunknown software flaw in a widelydeployed general electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the august 14th northeastern u. Finally, on the third day of this blackout, 2,000 mw was the loss for 20 hours and another 1,000 mw was the shortfall for the final 10 hours of this blackout. Firstenergy says its problems were some of many issues destabilizing power flow in the northeast that day, and that its role in the outage is. If you hear about a level 3 internet outage today and havent heard this company mentioned before, then you might be wondering how problems involving the level3 network could take down your. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation. The recent power blackout in the northeast has revived the discussion on the need. The massive power outage affected areas in eight northeastern and midwestern states, as well as ontario, canada. Cause, software bug in the alarm system in the control room of firstenergy. There are strict protocols in place which govern the procedures to be followed should a power company encounter problems. The blackout s primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at a control room of the firstenergy corporation, located in ohio. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific. And some software bugs can be lethalwhether its in an avionics system or a cars throttle control or a tiny piece of monitoring software installed on a unix computer that just happens to.
Software bug contributed to blackout securityfocus. Ten years to the day after the great northeast blackout of 2003 caused new york city to go dark, the new york times website has crashed and. Assam power distribution company issues guidelines to handle grid stability. Health impact in new york city during the northeastern. Photo of a toronto street corner during the 2003 blackout by john. I will start with a study of economic cost of software bugs.
Software bug contributed to blackout kevin poulsen, securityfocus 20040211. Considered one of the worst blackouts in history, the northeast blackout was caused by a software bug. This study assessed the health effects of the 2003 northeastern blackout, the largest one in history, on mortality and hospital admissions due to respiratory, cardiovascular, and renal diseases in new york city nyc, and compared the disease patterns and sociodemographic profiles of cases during the blackout with those on control days. Aug 14, 2018 other plant operators began to notice the problem, but they focused on fixing issues in their local network rather than informing other plant operators. Blackout hits northeast united states a major outage knocked out power across the eastern united states and parts of canada on august 14, 2003. At the time, it was the second most widespread electrical blackout in. The media centre for ontarios independent energy system operator ieso noted that the blackouts causes stemmed from inadequate procedures and operations in the state of ohio, as outlined in final report on the august 14, 2003 blackout in the united states and canada. Designing practical software bug detectors using commodity hardware and common programming patterns tongzhang abstract softwarebugscancostmillionsandaffectpeople. Final report on the august 14, 2003 blackout in the united. Famous software disasters programming errors cost the u.
Aug, 2008 the 2003 northeast blackout five years later. Northeast blackout of 2003 the northeast blackout of 2003 was a massive widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states, and ontario, canada on thursday, august 14, 2003, at approximately 4. Tougher regulatory measures are in place, but were still a long way from a smart power grid. Verizon wireless is the largest wireless provider in the u.
While major power outages did happen before and after this unique event, none of them came even close to the great northeast blackout of 1965. Discussion on firearm related issues specific to the new england area. Black ops 4 server problems or errors, apr 2020 product. Jan 05, 20 the great northeast blackout of 2003 caused the failure of more than 508 generating units at 265 separate power plants, causing almost one in every six people in the united states to lose power for up to 2 days. Northeast blackout caused by a software bug techdirt. A case study of the 2003 north american power outage key questions what were the main vulnerabilities and threats related to the electricity subsector of the energy sector at the time of the blackout. The blackout demonstrated the interconnected nature of the north american infrastructure, and its vulnerability to small and. In a matter of seconds, large portions of ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, massachusetts, new york, connecticut, new.
An operator corrects the telemetry problem, but forgets to restart the. A collection of wellknown software failures software systems are pervasive in all aspects of society. Aug 14, 20 ten years ago today, large portions of the midwest and northeast united states and into canada went dark. Aug 15, 2003 a surge of electricity to western new york and canada touched off a series of power failures and enforced blackouts yesterday that left parts of at least eight states in the northeast and the. Ultimately, however, the issues raised by the blackout go far beyond that, which may be why doe took charge of the inquriy on 20 august. Most did not get their power back until two days later. The outage, which was much more widespread than the northeast blackout of 1965, affected an estimated 10 million people in ontario and 45 million people in eight u. Northeast blackout of 2003 academic dictionaries and.
It works when i am home and near my router but wont work when i am away from it. Analysis of the risk and uncertainty chevalier, samuel c. Most places restored power by midnight, as early as 6 p. Led by a group of professionals, the digital news platform covers every inch of the eight states of northeast india and the five neighbouring countries. Normally, the problem would have tripped an alarm in the control room of firstenergy corporation, an ohiobased utility company, but the alarm. One of them was buried in a massive piece of software compiled from four. Part one of a twopart series on the northeast blackout of 2003. Aug 14, 2019 blackout hits northeast united states a major outage knocked out power across the eastern united states and parts of canada on august 14, 2003. From electronic voting to online shopping, a significant part of our daily life is mediated by software. Nov 11, 20 in 2003, a blackout crippled areas of the u. A huge 1965 blackout in the northeast prompted utilities to create the north. The blackouts primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at a control room.
Northeast blackout of 2003 the northeast blackout of 2003 is the second most widespread power outage in history. Other plant operators began to notice the problem, but they focused on fixing issues in their local network rather than informing other plant operators. Aug 14, 2003 a map of the states and provinces affected by the w. Veteran owned small business led by a former white house national security council director and comprised of a talented team of engineers, practitioners, scientists, and academics, disaster tech works hard to provide you with the most effective disaster preparedness, response, and resilience tools. The northeast blackout struck 15 years ago today extremetech. The task force responsible for investigating the cause of the aug.
The outage affected an area with an estimated 50 million people and 61,800 megawatts mw of electric load in the states of ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, new york, vermont, massachusetts, connecticut, new jersey and the canadian province of ontario. August 2003 northeast blackout new york city reported. The northeast blackout of 2003, which impacted the u. Meanwhile, at firstenergy, a race condition in the companys software. Ibm support called for 8,932articles on race condition number growing at the rate of per year stack overflow has 14,453 question on race condition. The blackout that exposed the flaws in the grid the new. Its the system, not a shortage of power plants that is the problem. College of engineering and mathematical sciences university of vermont, burlington, vt abstractin august of 2003, a series of cascading line trips and generator outages caused over 55 million customers to lose access to electrical power. Black ops 4 is the new game from treyarch which everyone has been waiting to play for a long time. If outages from major storms are excluded, the causes of each hour of outage include equipment failure 24 minutes, as in the 1965 northeast blackout. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states, and the canadian province of ontario on august 1428, 2003, beginning just after 4. Take a look at the major power outages over many years, and see that the problems we face are not because we arent building enough power plants. Remembering the 2003 northeastern blackout in toronto. In this page, i collect a list of wellknown software failures.
There are other issues that are higher probability that need to be addressed. Turns out after all the various speculation on reasons, the big northeast blackout from last summer was the result of a software bug that was only just discovered. For more than five years, nerc has sought and failed to get. What will be key challenges for the resilience of the electricity subsector in the future. Significant information and reports about the blackout investigation are posted below. The economic cost of the blackou t an issue paper on the northeastern blackout, august 14, 200 3. Geckil, economist aeg working paper 20032 introduction on thursday, august 14, 2003, an electrical disruption caused a loss of electrical service to consumers and industry acro ss the northeast. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states, and the canadian province of ontario on august 14, 2003, beginning just after 4. Monadnock has been a amazing supporter of nes over the years by hosting dozens of shoots and events. Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles 207,000 km 2 were left without electricity for up to hours. As usual, black ops 4 will give players the complete online multiplayer experience that they are. The blackout occurred when a software bug in firstenergys.
In the aftermath of the event, most of the its field equipment returned to service with the resumption of power, but it took several days for all the its equipment. Designing practical software bug detectors using commodity. The northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific american.
While major power outages did happen before and after this unique event, none of them came even. In august 2003, for example, the great northeast blackout, triggered when a sagging power line touched some tree limbs in northeastern ohio, was rapidly complicated by human error, software issues, and equipment failures, leading to the most widespread blackout in north american history. A case study of the 2003 north american power outage. Chinese hackers may have been responsible for the recent power outage in florida, and the widespread blackout that struck the northeastern u. In which therapy planning software in a series of accidents, created by multi data systems international, a u. Nerc worked closely with the joint uscanada task force and all affected entities to investigate the causes of the august 14, 2003 blackout. A software bug at firstenergy corporation in ohio caused this power outage. The northeast power system broke up 4 seconds after the initial disturbance, and 30 million people were without electricity for as long as hours.
The telemetry problem was corrected, but the monitor wasnt restarted. Moving forward on lessons learned from the blackout of 2003. Much larger than the northeast blackout of 1965, in america alone, this blackout affected 45 million people in 8 states. The great northeast blackout of 2003 caused the failure of more than 508 generating units at 265 separate power plants, causing almost one in every six people in the united states to lose power for up to 2 days. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation computerworld. Moving forward on lessons learned from the blackout of. Software bug contributed to blackout it failures in the great us blackout sparks. Ten years later, we are still grappling with concerns over the vulnerability of the power grid. The northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on tuesday, november 9, 1965, affecting parts of ontario in canada and connecticut, massachusetts, new hampshire, new jersey, new york, rhode island, pennsylvania, and vermont in the united states. Northeast now is a multiapp based hyperregional bilingual news portal. The unlikely story of one of the biggest blackouts in us history. Aug 14, 2003 the northeast blackout of 2003 was a massive widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and ontario, canada on thursday, august 14, 2003, at approximately 4.
The map shows an entire state or province as red, when in some cases only a small portion e. In the new york city blackout experience, effects of catastrophic events on transportation system management and operations. The northeast blackout of 1965 journal article osti. This greatly exaggerates the actual area of the blackout. As will be shown, the 2003 northeast blackout was heavily based in these concepts. Feb 11, 2004 turns out after all the various speculation on reasons, the big northeast blackout from last summer was the result of a software bug that was only just discovered and not as many had speculated. It is the first of its kind new media initiative in the northeast, and is based in guwahati. The cascading event, which started shortly after 4. On november 9, 1965, the largest blackout in history occurred.
An online investigation of famous power failures in nyc in 1965 and 1977. On august 14, 2003, a series of faults caused by tree branches touching power lines in ohio, which were then complicated by human error, software issues. The unlikely story of one of the biggest blackouts in us. This story was originally published in the may 2007 issue of scientific.
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