The history of the blackout – LAZARUS UNION ACADEMY

Historical blackouts and their effects

In the past, there have been several serious blackouts with far-reaching consequences.

Here are a few examples:

2003, North America: A power outage paralysed large parts of the USA and Canada. The cause was a software error in the monitoring system.
2012, India: Over 600 million people were affected by one of the biggest blackouts in history. The grid was overwhelmed by high loads.
2021, Texas: An extreme onset of winter led to massive power outages and widespread supply bottlenecks.

Lessons learnt from past events: What has improved? What has not?

After major blackouts, many security measures have been improved, for example through modernised grid infrastructures or better emergency plans. Nevertheless, challenges such as cyber attacks and natural disasters remain. In addition, many countries are still a long way from decentralised grid restructuring.