On October 10, 2003, the NERC Board of Trustees, with the endorsement of its Stakeholders Committee, directed that the following letter be sent to the CEOs of all NERC control areas and reliability coordinators.

NERC is assisting the U.S.-Canada Joint Task Force's investigation of the August 14, 2003, blackout that affected parts of the Midwest and Northeast United States, and Ontario, Canada. Although considerable progress has been made in the investigation to determine what happened, an understanding of the causes of the outage is still being developed through analysis by teams of experts.

The reliability of the North American bulk electric systems, including the avoidance of future cascading outages, is of paramount importance to NERC and its stakeholders. Pending the outcome of the final report on the outage, NERC emphasizes to all entities responsible for the reliable operation of bulk electric systems the importance of assuring those systems are operated within their design criteria and within conditions known to be reliable through analytic study. If the power system enters an unanalyzed state, system operators must have the authority and the capability to take emergency actions to return the power system to a safe condition.

NERC requests that each entity in North America that operates a control area and each NERC reliability coordinator review the  list of reliability practices to ensure their organizations are within NERC and regional reliability council standards and established good utility practices. NERC further requests that within 60 days, each entity report in writing to their respective regional reliability council, with a copy to NERC, that such a review has been completed and the status of any necessary corrective actions. This brief list of near-term actions is not in any way intended to diminish the need to comply with all NERC and regional reliability council standards and good utility practices.

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