Among other goals, the Smart Grid will reduce or eliminate the possibility of "cascading dominoes" blackouts like the one that darkened parts of the northeastern U.S. on August 14,2003 (see the figure). The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states. According to the final report on the event, at 1:31 p.m., local time, a generating plant near Cleveland, Ohio, went offline because of excess electrical demand. (It was a hot day.) The plant transferred that demand onto some high-voltage lines in a remote area, which then got too hot and sagged into some trees that should have been trimmed. There was a short circuit and the first domino fell.
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