From discussion board at www.euy2k.com
'...
Background for my question:
Coal powered electrical utilities provide the majority source of power
to Minnesotans. One coal-powered plant alone at Becker, according to
NSP at their web site, www.nspco.com, burns three trainloads of coal
a day!
The question (sorry for over-elaborating):
I have no idea how far away that coal is. Suppose the train has a path
from point A (where the coal is) to point Z (where the NSP coal
power plant is). Assume there are a multitude of power utilities
operating (their service territory) between points A-Z, and we'll call
these inter- mediate electric service utility territories points A-Z. Now
imagine that just one power utility is down, or more, at one or more
points in A-Z.
If the railroad uses electricity to operate the switches and signals
between points A-Z, will a Year-2000 caused power failure (let's
imagine a serious design flaw affecting critical components such that
the downed power utility can't jury rig a quick fix and they're down for
weeks or months then) -- if even only one utility is down, affecting say
the area where 10-20 signals/switch systems exist on the railroad path,
will such a downed utility prevent that railroad from making their coal
delivery to NSP (or any other coal-based power utility)?
The question is really where is the electricity coming from that
services those switches and signals along the railroad path? Is it from
the local utilities in the crossed railroad path or is it from somewhere
else? Are there failsafe/fallback power sources for those
switches/signals?
What happens if the power grid is messed up and the local utilities are
only servicing their local utility areas and only one utility on the path is
down from A-Z. I ask this question if the answer to all of this is that
the grid supplies the electricity and if the local utility is down, the grid
supplies the electricity from whoever is supplying electricity to the
grid--thus if this is the answer, my counter-question is this, which I
repeat, if the grid can't supply electricity to the switches/signals and a
local utility is downed, then is the railroad prevented from making that
complete route?
Last, can these switches/signals be operated manually without any
electricity? Or is the manual fallback option no longer in existence
everywhere?
Conclusion (fears) if the answers are not pretty...
If the answers are that the railroad can't make the delivery if only one
utility is downed along the path, or if the grid is disabled and local
utilities are only servicing their local service areas (but one of the
utilities are down along the path), and if manual fallback (when power
does not exist) is no longer an option, then coal-based utilities are very
much at risk in 2000. It means, again if all the above answers are "not
pretty", that one bad link in the chain, breaks the chain.
Thanks for anybody's help in digging out the answers to these
questions.
Roleigh Martin
ourworld.compuserve.com
Asked by Roleigh Martin (marti124@tc.umn.edu) on April 05, 1998.
Answers
Talked to my buddy who works for Burlington-Santa Fe: Signals and
switches draw their power from the local utility. They have *some*
emergency generators, but limited fuel. I don't know how many
switches can be operated by hand like they did 100 years ago, but I do
know they have fewer employees to do it than 100 years ago. I'd say
an extended outage spells real trouble, and a great need for personnel,
just to keep minimal vital shipments rolling.
Answered by Lane Dexter (madison_6@hotmail.com) on April 10,
1998.
Response to railroad vulnerability
I spoke yesterday for quite some time with the president of Fort Worth
Technologies. They are involved in the reprogramming efforts related
to Y2K. Their largest client happens to be Burlinton Northern/Santa
Fe. He relayed to me that this railroad company supplies 80% of this
nations fuel and coal.
In their effort to fix their code, they were on schedule to complete
their task prior to 2000. In the past two years they completed 10 mil
lines of code and in the last couple of months discovered an additional
33 million lines of code. This now puts them 2 years behind in
completion. The entire company realizes that there is no hope in
finishing this code. The president just sold his house and doesn't know
where he's going, but he knows what the future holds...and it doesn't
look good.
Answered by Greg Griffin (gsgriffin@aol.com) on April 16, 1998. |
