History of Power outage in Timeline

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: March 20, 2026

A power outage, known by various names like blackout or power failure, signifies the complete cessation of electrical power supply to an end user from the electrical power network.

2000: California Electricity Crisis

In 2000, the California electricity crisis began, marked by rolling blackouts due to the destabilization of the wholesale electricity market following government deregulation.

2001: California Electricity Crisis

In 2001, the California electricity crisis continued, with rolling blackouts impacting customers due to electricity demand exceeding supply as a consequence of government deregulation.

2002: OPA Model Proposed

In 2002, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Power System Engineering Research Center of the University of Wisconsin (PSerc), and the University of Alaska Fairbanks proposed a mathematical model for the behavior of electrical distribution systems known as the OPA model.

2003: Research Publication on Outages

In 2003, Carreras and co-authors published research claiming that reducing the likelihood of small outages could increase the likelihood of larger ones, because the economic benefit of preventing small outages outweighs the risk of large-scale blackouts.

2003: Northeast Blackout

In 2003, the Northeast Blackout occurred when overgrown trees touched high-voltage power lines, causing around 55 million people in the U.S. and Canada to lose power and costing around $6 billion to restore.

2015: Solution Proposed to Reduce Power Outage Impact

In 2015, a solution was proposed by M. S. Saleh to reduce the impact of power outages.

October 2018: Senate Hearing on Black Start

In October 2018, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to examine "black start", which is the process of restoring electricity after a system-wide power loss, in order to learn about backup plans in the electric utility industry.