On November 9, 1965, one of the largest blackouts occurred, as 30 million people lost power in the northeastern United States and southeastern Ontario, Canada. Some customers were without power for 13 hours.

Due to this blackout, legislation suggested the U.S. Electric Power Reliability Act of 1967, which proposed the development of an industry reliability council. On June 1, 1968, this Act was passed and the National Electric Reliability Council (NERC) was established by the electric utility industry.  Nine regional reliability organizations were formalized.

This is where we start on the timeline.  In 1996, two major blackouts in the western U.S. prompted agreements to pay fines if they violated certain reliability standards.

Throughout this long history, NERC has brought together hundreds of industry expert volunteers in nearly 50 committees, sub-committees, task forces, and working groups considering issues from wind and renewable power integration to education to demand-side management and energy efficiency. Today, NERC's standards are mandatory and enforceable throughout the 50 United States and several provinces in Canada. Entities in the U.S. found to be in violation of a standard can be subject to fines of up to $1 million per day per violation. NERC oversees reliability for a bulk power system that provides electricity to 334 million people and has a total electricity demand of 830,000 megawatts. It has 211,000 miles of high-voltage transmission line and represents more than $1 trillion (US) worth of assets.

Today and in the future, NERC will continue to raising awareness of reliability issues, address and improve reliability every day.