American Electric Power (AEP, Columbus, Ohio) released a timeline of events and conditions detected by automated controls on its transmission grid Aug. 14, 2003, when massive amounts of power were drawn north from AEP's grid to loads in the vicinity of Lake Erie immediately prior to the blackout that affected all or parts of eight states and eastern Canada.

“This timeline provides details of the rapid escalation of events that impacted our transmission grid, but we will not get involved in the speculation as to the cause of the abnormal power flow swings across the grid or theorize about events occurring outside our system,” said Tom Shockley, AEP's COO. “We have provided our data to the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) to be included in its analysis of the blackout.

“It's important to note that the load and generation on AEP's grid were in balance both before and after the beginning of the blackout. This explains how we were able to maintain grid stability after our automated controls correctly reacted to prevent the blackout conditions from cascading through our seven-state eastern grid and to protect lines and equipment from potentially extensive damage,” Shockley said. “Our transmission system is a US$3 billion asset that includes the world's largest network of high-capacity 765-kV lines that serve as the backbone of the East Coast's grid. It's a robust, well-designed system that proved its worth last week.”

Visit www.tdworld.com for the detailed event timeline.