IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 25

Power System Restoration Following
the 2003 North American Blackout

O

On 14 August 2003, three 345-kV trAnsmissiOn circuits in nOrtheAstern
Ohio contacted overgrown trees during a 40-min time span, starting a chain of events that culminated in the collapse of the electrical grid across the eastern great Lakes region, the northeastern
united states, and parts of eastern canada. in the aftermath of the disturbance, large portions of
the eastern interconnection were blacked out, and several electrical islands were present. system
operators faced a formidable task: to reassemble the grid and restore power to tens of millions of
customers. the challenges that had to be overcome varied significantly from one state or province
to another. new York, new england, Ontario, michigan, and Ohio each had unique problems that
operators had to address.

New York

Faced with a system restoration task, the priorities of the new York independent system
Operator (nYisO) restoration plan are to: 1) stabilize the remaining system, 2) extend the
stabilized system into blacked-out areas for generation and load restoration, 3) connect energized islands to the stabilized system for restoration of frequency and voltage control, and
4) restore normal transmission operations. in keeping with the restoration plan, the highestpriority operations are to: 1) energize the new York state power system, 2) synchronize the
new York state power system with the eastern interconnection, and 3) restore off-site power
to nuclear plants in new York. the operators first had to assess the state of the system and
determine what was still energized. they found that new York had split electrically into two
pieces, with the southeast part of the state blacked out and upstate new York remaining as an
electrical island but with greatly reduced load and generation. Of the 28,700 mW of load in
the new York control Area just prior to the disturbance, only 5,700 mW remained. Figure 1
is a representation of the new York Power system in the following sequence of events.
An early step taken was the initiation of black-start procedures at the gilboa pumped-storage
plant in east-central new York (Figure 1). two gilboa units (250 mW each) were started at 4:27
p.m., but they could not be synchronized to the remaining power system until after 7:05 p.m.
(when the marcy-new scotland 345-kV line was reclosed) due to excessive voltage disparity
between the gilboa and Fraser substations. Long island Power Authority (LiPA) began restoring the Long island system independently of nYisO, using gas turbines to energize the local
system and pick up load.
After finding that the remaining system was an island, operators concluded that in order to
restore transmission circuits, they would need to restore load at the same time so as to prevent
excessively high voltage. in order to restore load, however, they would need additional generation to serve the additional load and keep frequency under control. in order to bring generation
online, the voltage and frequency in the new York island would need to be stable. resynchronization of the island to the eastern interconnection therefore became the top priority for nYisO
operators in order to achieve the restoration goals.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2013.2285591
Date of publication: 17 December 2013

By Eric H. Allen, Robert B. Stuart, and Thomas E. Wiedman
january/february 2014

ieee power & energy magazine

25



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover1
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover2
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 1
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 2
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 3
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 4
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 5
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 6
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 7
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 8
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 9
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 10
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 11
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 12
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 13
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 14
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 15
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 16
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 17
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 18
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 19
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 20
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 21
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 22
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 23
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 24
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 25
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 26
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 27
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 28
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 29
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 30
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 31
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 32
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 33
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 34
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 35
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 36
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 37
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 38
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 39
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 40
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 41
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 42
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 43
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 44
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 45
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 46
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 47
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 48
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 49
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 50
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 51
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 52
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 53
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 54
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 55
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 56
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 57
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 58
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 59
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 60
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 61
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 62
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 63
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 64
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 65
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 66
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 67
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 68
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 69
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 70
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 71
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 72
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 73
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 74
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 75
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 76
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 77
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 78
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 79
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 80
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 81
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 82
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 83
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 84
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 85
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 86
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 87
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 88
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 89
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 90
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 91
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 92
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 93
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 94
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 95
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 96
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 97
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 98
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 99
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 100
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 101
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 102
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 103
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 104
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 105
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 106
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 107
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 108
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 109
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 110
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 111
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 112
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover3
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_091020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_070820
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_050620
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_030420
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_010220
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_111219
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_091019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_070819
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_050619
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_030419
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_010219
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_111218
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_091018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_070818
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_050618
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_030418
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_010218
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_111217
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_091017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_070817
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_050617
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_030417
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_010217
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_111216
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_091016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_070816
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_050616
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_030416
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_010216
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/powerenergy_010216
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_111215
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_091015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_070815
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_050615
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_030415
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_010215
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_111214
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_091014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_070814
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_050614
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_030414
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pes/powerenergy_010214
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com