where did the 2003 blackout originate that caused 10 million canadians disrupted electrical service?

Answer 1

The blackout originated in the Cleveland area due to a combination of events.

A generating plant outside of Cleveland went off line.
The extra power load picked up by other portions of the electrical grid resulted in a power line failing due to the combination of extra power and coming in contact with overgrown trees...

... which resulted in more power having to be picked up by other portions of the system, including another power line knocked off line due to excess power and overgrown trees.

The cause for an inefficient reaction to the initial problem that caused the problem to cascade out of control was a computer glitch at FirstEnergy. Their alarm system failed and no one noticed. The accumulating alarms caused first the primary computer to crash, then the back-up computer.

By that time the problem was cascading across an overstressed power grid.

Side note: I'm not sure how many remember the satellite photo distributed via e-mails shortly after the blackout, but the photo was a hoax. There was no satellite named GeoStar, the photo wasn't from a geostationary satellite, and wasn't even taken the same year the blackout occurred. It was a doctored photo of a popular poster - a conglomeration of night time satellite photos from 1993-1994 from low orbiting satellites in the Air Force's DMSP program merged to provide a (cloud-free) picture of the US and North America at night. The doctored photo didn't even blackout the proper portions of the country, extending too far South and not far enough to the Northwest.

Answer 2

What Caused The 2003 Blackout

Answer 3

It was not either a solar flare. It was a faulty relay switch that tripped and sent the electricity to other stations which created surges there and tripped their relay switches which in turn, directed the electricity to even more stations tripping their switches all in a cascading effect. The relay switches were designed to avoid overloads and burn outs but they ended up creating more of the problems that they were originally designed to stop. The switch was supposed to have been changed out to new about a year prior but it was only noted that it was changed but never really was changed. The power companies are putting new lines and programs in that will protect the masses from experiencing this kind of thing again---that is what the newer surcharges on your power bills are covering if you live in the north eastern United States.

Answer 4

Offical blame goes to FirstEnergy Corporation of Ohio. They failed to trim trees in lines outside their power-plant near Cleveland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_North_America_blackout

Findings
In February 2004, the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force released their final report, placing the main cause of the blackout on FirstEnergy Corporation's failure to trim trees in part of its Ohio service area. The report said that a generating plant in Eastlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, went off-line amid high electrical demand, and strained high-voltage power lines later went out of service when they came in contact with "overgrown trees". The cascading effect that resulted ultimately forced the shutdown of more than 100 power plants.[2]

Answer 5

FirstEnergy Corporation of Ohio is the correct answer for the radio trivia

Answer 6

FirstEnergy Corporation of Ohio for CISNFM

Answer 7

It was caused by a solar flare (sudden outburst of charged particles from the sun) that produced an extraordinary amount of radiation. Because Canada is close to the north magnetic pole, it was strongly affected.

Answer 8

confident I remember this Black out in 1965 My kin wasnt plagued with the help of it we had capability. yet!!! circumstances being what they have been in the Atomic attack age and basically some years had surpassed because of the fact the Cuban Missile disaster--They community information journalists have been attempting to scare the same old public in my section with communicate of Russian Sabotage and the excellent possibility of the Nuclear Missile attack which could follow!!!!!

Answer 9

looking for this one too but note the question asked is WHERE did this blackout originate from? Yes it affected huge parts of both Canada and USA but where did it actually originate from is the answer we need for trivia. thanks

Answer 10

A squirrel was caught peeing on a transformer in Cleveland, OH. The next thing that happened -- KABOOM!