An important ramification of this event was recognition of the need to strengthen the grid and improve system restart capabilities. Electric utilities throughout the U.S. were mandated by their regional "Reliability Councils" (e.g. NERC for the northeast) to increase their system reserve margins by installing a certain percentage of their overall capacity in the form of smaller localized fast-start generating units, much of them with ‘black start’ capability to assure that large plants and grids could be restarted in the event of another major outage.