ISO-NE Network Briefly Knocked Down by Hardware Malfunction

ISO-NE's networks were out for 6 hours on Wednesday after a hardware malfunction. | ISO-NE

May 20, 2022

A hardware malfunction took down a number of ISO-NE systems for six hours but the grid operator said there were no effects on power reliability.

A hardware malfunction took down a number of ISO-NE systems for six hours on Wednesday, the grid operator said.

Starting at around 2 p.m. the malfunction hampered systems including email, internet, ISO-NE’s public website and market software applications, the RTO said.

The grid operator’s IT staff were able to bring networks back online by about 8 p.m., and the reliability of New England’s power system was not affected, ISO-NE said in a statement.

“The ISO will be conducting a thorough review of the outage to determine its cause, and taking necessary steps to prevent similar disruptions in the future,” the statement said.

ISO-NE spokesperson Matt Kakley declined to provide any additional details to RTO Insider.

“Sound cybersecurity policy precludes us from discussing the details of our networks and systems in a public forum,” Kakley said.

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