U.S.-Canada blackout task force takes shape

A U.S.-Canadian task force to investigate the Aug. 14 blackout is taking shape, with key experts coming from across the two countries -- but not from some of the companies and power managers associated with the massive power failure.

Also, the investigators will focus on the direct cause, rather than analyzing trends such as deregulation that may have indirectly contributed to the blackout, said a Bush administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The team -- made up of power authority experts, government bureaucrats and top engineers -- faces a daunting task: poring over tens of thousands of documents to recreate an event that unfolded at the speed of light.

They will try to recreate the catastrophe by splicing together computer readouts from hundreds of power substations and utility control rooms in eight U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario.

The task force contains four U.S. and four Canadian representatives, led by U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Herb Dhaliwal, the minister of Natural Resources Canada.

The task force also bundles three working groups, each with 10-15 members, which will investigate problems -- and recommend upgrades -- on the electric system, grid security and nuclear power.

Neither the Department of Energy nor Natural Resources Canada would release the full task force roster, but some utilities and state governments announced their appointments.

Abraham was expected to announce others on the task force today when he offered an update on the blackout probe to the North American Electrical Reliability Council in Princeton, N.J.

Utility not represented

The task force doesn't include employees of FirstEnergy Corp., the Akron, Ohio-based utility at the center of the investigation.

Nor have organizers requested investigators from International Transmission Co., owner of Michigan power lines that failed in the blackout, or the Midwest Independent System Operator, the Indianapolis-based organization charged with overseeing the grid in those states.

Some task force members do represent companies involved in the blackout.

Consumer advocates have complained about not being included, and suggested the utility-heavy investigative team might easily conclude that the costs of fixing the grid can simply be tacked on to electric bills.

Other organizations sending representatives to the task force include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ontario Power Generation, public utilities boards of Pennsylvania and Vermont, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and the New York Power Authority, according to the Bush administration official.

On the receiving end of the investigation, utilities and grid owners stricken by the blackout are being bombarded by requests from NERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and regional regulators for logs and control room recordings.

"We get e-mails every day from different groups looking for information," Julie Couillard, chief operating officer of Michigan Electric Transmission Co. in Ann Arbor.

Rough outlines of the events point to Cleveland, where a power plant failure and a power line tripping on a tree southeast of the city seem to have triggered the cascade of ruptured lines and switches that left 50 million North Americans groping in the dark.

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Associated Press writers John McAlpin in Trenton, N.J., John Lumpkin in Washington and Alexandra Moses in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.