Where were you August 14th, 2003? On that date and for the next four days most of Ontario and parts of the northeastern United States were without power.
The IESO looked back and declared these causes for the blackout: deficiencies in operations and procedures in Ohio, poor communication and lack of training. Wikipedia says the blackout’s primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of an Ohio based electric utility.
More than 50 million people were affected. A state of emergency was declared in Ontario until August 22nd. In 2003 Ontario was the only jurisdiction with enforced reliability standards for power systems. The Northeast blackout changed that and now there are standards throughout North America.
