In this page, i collect a list of wellknown software failures. Much larger than the northeast blackout of 1965, in america alone, this blackout affected 45 million people in 8 states. The task force investigating the cause of the august blackout that crippled much of the northeast and parts of canada concluded that a software failure at akron, ohiobased firstenergy corp. Prevention remains difficult without methods to calculate the risk of cascading power failures. Northeast blackout of 2003 wikimili, the best wikipedia. The blackout that exposed the flaws in the grid the new york. I will start with a study of economic cost of software bugs. The safety relay was set to trip if other protective equipment deeper within the ontario hydro system failed to. A wide variety of events can cause disruption of the power system.
Information primarily taken from nercs technical analysis of the system collapse. 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. The blackout was, in fact, triggered on a hot day by an untrimmed tree in ohio and was aided by a hung alarm system. As noted in chapter 1, given the numerous and diverse potential sources of disruption, it is impressive that relatively few largearea, longduration outages have occurred. John lewis is the coauthor of the previous editions of the java software solutions textbook. 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. The blackout was caused by the tripping of a 230kilovolt transmission line near ontario, canada, at 5. A technician had shut it off to upgrade the software, and then gone to. As the august 14th blackout began, a flaw buried in widelydeployed. Pataki reluctantly recalled one of the two major blackouts of the last 40 years in the northeast the 1965 power failure, which left an 80,000squaremile stretch of the united states and. 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. Blackout threat unmitigated a decade after the northeast. The report makes clear that this blackout could have been prevented and that immediate actions must be taken in both the united states and canada to ensure that our electric system is more reliable. The northeast blackout is one very, very large example of load capacity failure.
The northeast blackout struck 15 years ago today extremetech. Aug 14, 2018 fifteen years ago tuesday, a power company software glitch plunged large swathes of the northeast u. The northeast power system broke up 4 seconds after the initial disturbance, and 30 million people were without electricity for as long as hours. November 9, 1965 the great northeast power blackout occurred. Final report on the august 14, 2003 blackout in the united. Abstractin august of 2003, a series of cascading line trips and generator outages caused over 55 million customers to lose access to electrical power. Eastern daylight time, a highvoltage power line in northern ohio brushed against some overgrown trees and shut downa fault, as its known in. Last saturdays power outage in new york city affected fewer than 100,000 people in a city of 8. New york ap a programming error has been identified as the cause of alarm failures that might have contributed to the scope of last summers northeast blackout, industry officials said thursday. A number of factors and failings came together to make the august 14th northeastern blackout the worst outage in north american history. The cause of the failure was the setting of a protective relay on one of the transmission lines from the sir adam beck hydroelectric power station no. By thinkreliability staff on august 14, 2003, over 50 million people in the u. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific american. Biggest power outages in us history a presentation of current solutions pc 2.
The northeast blackout of 1965 journal article osti. More than 35 million people were hit by the northeast blackout in 1965, one of the largest outages in north american history. The 2003 northeast blackout, 10 years later photos a decade ago today, more than 50 million people lost power during the great northeast blackout of 2003. Assessment of the public health effects of power failures has been limited to events occurring at hospitals and related emergency medical services. More than 50 million people across eight northeastern u. As a result, almost every company needs to have a power failure response strategy in place.
Northeast blackout of 2003 your expert root cause analysis. The 2003 northeast blackoutfive years later scientific. A previouslyunknown software flaw in a widelydeployed general electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the august 14th northeastern u. The task force responsible for investigating the cause of the aug. New york ap the programming error has been identified. 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. We examined the public health effects of the northeast blackout of august 2003 and the emergency response to the blackout by the new york city department of health and mental hygiene dohmh. Most places restored power by midnight, as early as 6 p. 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. Fifteen years ago, a software bug resulted in over 50 million people losing. Analysis of the risk and uncertainty chevalier, samuel c. Fifteen years ago tuesday, a power company software glitch plunged large swathes of the northeast u. On august 14, 2003, more than 50 million people across eight u. A major outage knocked out power across the eastern united states and parts of canada on august 14, 2003.
Furthermore, this demand increased with each new shutdown. Ultimately, a delayed alarm following the failure of a voltage monitoring tool outside of cincinnati, ohio caused the issue. May 03, 2016 the northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the northeastern and midwestern united states and the canadian province of ontario on thursday. 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. New york news coverage of the northeast blackout of 2003. Java software solutions establishes a strong foundation of programming techniques to foster welldesigned objectoriented software.
The 2003 northeast blackout, 10 years later photos. On november 9, 1965, the largest blackout in history occurred. Catastrophic failure and engineering disasters episode 11 engineering is the application of mathematics, science, economics, and social and practical knowledge to invent, innovate, design, build. In an unstressed system, one component failure for example, a line tripping or a generator outage has little influence on other components, but in a system that is highly stressed, failure of one component has a much greater influence on the rest of the system.
When overloaded transmission lines hit untrimmed trees, the alarm did not sound to warn maintenance workers. Nov 11, 20 in 2003, a blackout crippled areas of the u. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation the task force responsible for investigating the cause of the aug. Fifteen years after the 2003 northeast blackout, the likelihood of a. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation computerworld. The causes of outages differ in a number of important ways. Aug 14, 2018 the blackout was a telling example of how vulnerable modern infrastructure can be to disruption and a reminder that our sophisticated failure prevention systems are only as effective as the. Software bug in the alarm system in the control room of firstenergy 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. Call it a power outage, power cut, power blackout, power failure or a just blackout, nothing effects life more than an electrical power outage in 21st century. While major power outages did happen before and after this unique event, none of them came even.
May 17, 2016 as a result, almost every company needs to have a power failure response strategy in place. The blackout s primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at a control room of the firstenergy corporation, located in ohio. Software failure cited in august blackout investigation. History of software failure and loses the northeast blackout in 2003 has been one of the major power system failures in the history of north america.
College of engineering and mathematical sciences university of vermont, burlington, vt. We present a case study for each software failure, the first is the iranian ir655 flight shootdown, the second is the ariane 5 flight failure, the third is the 2003 northeast blackout, and. At one given time and got the equivalent of busy signals. The failures occurred when multiple systems trying to access the same information at once got the equivalent of busy signals, he said. The blackout that exposed the flaws in the grid the new. Ten years later, we are still grappling with concerns over the vulnerability of the power grid. Very few businesses can operate effectively in the event of a sustained outage or blackout as was witnessed during the northeast blackout of 2003. I was the first journalist to report on a bug in a ge energy management system that resulted in an alarm system failure at firstenergys.
A software bug at firstenergy corporation in ohio caused this power outage. From electronic voting to online shopping, a significant part of our daily life is mediated by software. Remembering the 2003 northeastern blackout in toronto. What should have been a manageable local blackout cascaded into the collapse of the entire northeast region. In almost every instance, had system operators taken appropriate actions, these blackouts would not have occurred. The blackout s primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at a control room of the firstenergy corporation in ohio. Biggest software failures software testing can help catch. You may not have heard about 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. Aug, 2008 the 2003 northeast blackout five years later. 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. When the first system overloaded, it shut down and demand transferred on and on. The safety relay was set to trip if other protective equipment deeper within the ontario hydro system failed to operate properly. An aging electrical grid, a series of technology flaws and a few overgrown trees led to a cascading series of outages stretching from new york city to ohio and up into ontario, canada.
A narration of the events that lead to the great northeast blackout on august 14th, 2003. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of new york, cleveland and detroit, as well as toronto and ottawa, canada. Software bug contributed to blackout securityfocus. Et, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. 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. The blackout was a telling example of how vulnerable modern infrastructure can be to disruption and a reminder that our sophisticated failure prevention systems are only as effective as the. One of them was buried in a massive piece of software. Northeast blackout of 2003 the northeast blackout of 2003 is the second most widespread power outage in history. Taking after are 6 famous software disasters in as beneath. The blackouts proximate cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of firstenergy, an akron, ohiobased company, which rendered operators unaware of the need to redistribute load after overloaded transmission lines drooped into foliage. Software failure cited in blackout investigation computerworld. On august 14, 2003, a series of faults caused by tree branches. As a matter of fact, programming bugs can irritate, however, the defective programming can likewise be costly, humiliating, ruinous and savage.
The blackouts primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at a control room. The blackout demonstrated the interconnected nature of the north american infrastructure, and its vulnerability to small and. Most did not get their power back until two days later. 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. One of them was buried in a massive piece of software compiled from. The 1965 northeast blackout, ufos, and the johnson white house. The blackouts proximate cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of firstenergy, an akron, ohiobased. Heralded for its integration of small and large realworld examples, the worldwide bestselling text emphasizes problemsolving and design skills and introduces students to the process of constructing highquality. Software bug contributed to blackout kevin poulsen, securityfocus 20040211. The cascading event, which started shortly after 4. 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. The commonly told story is that the failure began at the ontario new york border, near niagara falls sir adam beck no.
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