<< Power Grid Will Be at Risk For Months, Power Plant Manager Says
courierpress.com.
Let's see- electricity is needed for water systems, and to ensure no chemicals get mixed in, right? humans can live for up to 4 days without water, right?
how long can unprepared people survive freezing temps?
How many days without electricity, heat, water until city-wide rioting and looting becomes rampant and unstoppable- remembering Mazlow's hiearchy of needs?????
forget months! forget weeks! count days!
Bald Eagle- I have hundreds of bookmarks- it will take me some time to find the articles you wish-
<<People will expect the grid to go down on January 1 if it is to go down at all. They will be confident if power is still on during the first week of January. Such confidence is risky, says this power plant manager.
“In one of our tests, it took six weeks for problems to develop in a system after we reset the clock.”
the LOUISVILLE COURIER (July 16).
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Bad news for those who thought the Y2K bug was short-lived: It could be around until 2070. Dave Synowiec, plant manager at American Electric Power, told Spencer County Chamber of Commerce members Thursday that Dec. 31, 1999 was neither the first nor the last day of the bug's life.
“The primary date of concern is 12/31/99,” he said. “That is the day that requires the most testing. By far.”
There are, however, 31 other dates that are potential trouble spots. Synowiec said these dates of concern occur between July 6, 1998, and Dec. 31, 2070.
The situation is complex because the calendar, the computer chips and the software act independently. When the calendar rolls over, the chip may or may not. The software won't care what century the chip thinks it is until it has a need to recognize the date.
“If the computer chip resets itself in January, problems may not develop in the system until later,” he said. “In one of our tests, it took six weeks for problems to develop in a system after we reset the clock.”
Synowiec's interest in Y2K's peculiarities is understandable. AEP is the largest transmission system in the country, with interconnections to other systems. Failure in one interconnection could cause the system to collapse.
He outlined a three-step approach the power industry in general and AEP in particular are taking to make sure people get light when they hit the switch on New Year's Day.
“We are testing to verify whether there is a problem,” he said. “We are looking at manufacturer's data and we are developing contingency plans.”
Those contingency plans include an extra one-month supply of coal and an emergency generating system for back-up power. Synowiec said AEP plans to take several units out of the system prior to Dec. 31.
“We will have them out of parallel with the system, operating on idle,” he said. “If we don't make it past the first day, they can provide start-up power for the system.”
The coal reserve is not an unusual measure, he said. AEP normally has about a six-month reserve on hand.
“Our coal comes from Wyoming by rail,” he said. “In winter the rail lines are down because of the snow. We have also been shut off from our supply by floods.”
AEP uses about 30,000 tons of coal a day, he said, and supplies had been as low as 500,000 tons.
courierpress.com.
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