Blackout

Blackouts occur when demand exceeds supply in an uncontrolled manner. I don't know about your 2001 date; I don't recall any major blackout that year. I believe some of these reports are now considered matters of internal security. What is your purpose in asking? Perhaps someone could direct you to a more general site.

...For example, most of the recent blackouts in California, Missouri and New York City were caused by failures of distribution equipment due to high demand and extreme heat...

More can be read from here: http://www.physorg.com/news74357669.html

A 12 hours blackout occurs in Italy in 2003. It seems it was triggered by the trip of a Swisse line caused by tree flashover.

Click here for further information.

A major blackout across the NorthEastern and MidWestern US and Canada was also caused by tree flashover in the summer when high Air Conditioning loads existed.

There is a selection of reading material on this topic in Wikipedia. There is no mention of one in 2001, though the one in 2003 is analysed in detail.

Hi,

in the August 2008 issue of Scientific American there is a mind catching article on the influence of solar storms on our power net.

And it states that a real big solar storm will do a lot of damage, much more than we want to tolerate.

Damaging electronics and transformers in space and on ground as high voltages and high currents are generated by fast moving dense plasmas.

Fortunately the last very big solar storm happened in 1859 but there have been some big ones in the last 40 years.

2013 will be the next maximum of solar activity.

RHABE

We had a blackout caused by a roadrunner trying to get warm inside a transformer. He got warm all right!

You might also search for the 1965 blackout - it was caused by demand overages in a hot summer. The one in 2003, I believe was caused by a faulty (damaged?) relay that self-destructed.