BLACKOUT

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Jul/Aug 2004

POWER SHORTAGES, INTERRUPTIONS COULD BECOME MORE COMMON STORY

On Aug. 14, 2003, America experienced the worst blackout in its history. The outage affected an estimated 50 million people in portions of the Midwest and Northeast, as well as Ontario, Canada. Total estimated U.S. costs: $4 billion to $10 billion.

An investigation by a task force concluded that the causes of the outage could have been prevented and that they reflected "long-standing institutional failures and weaknesses."

In the blink of an eye, reporters and editors across the country had to become experts on an industry filled with technical terms and governed by complex laws. They had to track the securities and Exchange Commission's reports on the companies involved in the outage, deal with Energy Information Administration experts and even learn about the different types of "electric power transactions."

All on deadline, of course.

Before that day comes to your newsroom, it would be much easier to become familiar with what is available so you know where to turn when the lights go out.

Useful data

When covering blackouts, an obvious step is finding out whether the companies involved hold federal contracts.

At the IRE and NICAR Database Library (www.ire.org/datalibrary) you can find data on federal contracts covering fiscal years 1979-2002. The federal contracts database includes the company and its contact information, the government agency in charge, and type and location of the work performed.

The Federal Procurement Data System, maintained by the U.S. General Services Administration, includes all federal contracts worth more than $25,000. In the most recent FPDS data available for the 2003 fiscal year, there are more than one million contracts documented, worth more than $290 billion. [The data was updated in April 2004. The next update will occur in mid-2005.]

Contracts included in the 2003 data show services being performed or items being produced in all states, as well as U.S. territories and some foreign countries. The list of services or products being contracted includes: telecommunications, maintenance, office furniture, food products, nursing home care contracts, consulting services, military equipment, computer equipment and software, janitorial services, removal and cleanup of hazardous materials, hotel/motel lodging, construction of troop housing, textile fabrics and fuel products.

Approximately 70 executive branch agencies report their procurement contract obligations to the FPDS.

It's also possible to analyze contracts awarded to small and disadvantaged businesses, veteran or women-owned small businesses, nonprofit organizations or foreign companies.

A state slice of the data would include all contracting agencies from a particular state, contractors and contracts performed.

Some other useful data would be the annual electric Utility Data from the Energy Information Administration. A single, self-extracting zip file for any year from 1990-2000 can be downloaded. It covers all American electrical utilities and contains five files. Data includes (in megawatt hours) sales and revenues for each class of customers - residential, commercial and industrial.

Resources

Another key for covering a blackout or energy crisis would be finding top-notch resources beyond contracts. There are several places to turn:

* The Energy Information Administration (EIA): Created by Congress in 1977, the EIA is a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. It provides forecasts and analyses regarding energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. Here you can find information on the three major power networks in the United States as well as data on the use of energy in residential housing units, which is collected through the Residential Energy Consumption Survey. (Visit www.eia.doe.gov)

* Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC): The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is an agency that regulates the interstate transmission of natural gas, oil and electricity. The Web site has an electronic library that contains more than 20 years of documents submitted to and issued by the FERC. (Visit http: //www.ferc.gov)

* U.S Department of Energy: In the Department of Energy (DOE) Web site you can find information on energy policy, congressional testimony and budgets. Also available is the final report of the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force on the Aug. 14, 2003, power blackout. (Visit www.doe.gov).

* American Public Power Association (APPA): APPA is the service organization for the nation's more than 2,000 community-owned electric utilities that serve more than 43 million Americans. The Web site provides a partial list of public power utilities as well as industry statistics. (Visit www.appanet.org)

* The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC): NARUC is formed by the agencies that regulate the activities of telecommunications, energy, and water utilities in the United States. (Visit www.naruc.org)

* National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA): NASUCA is an association of 44 consumer advocates in 42 states. The organization's members are designated by laws of their respective states to represent the interests of utility consumers before state and federal regulators and in the courts. From the Web site you can access testimony and filings. (Visit www.nasuca.org)