'GPS ROLLOVER: Power_Grid
Date:
1998-08-01 09:21:39
Subject:
Aug. 22, 1999: GPS Rollback Problem. Dead Silence on Risk.
Link:
nerc.com
Comment:
Will [the power grid, telecommunications, banking] make it much
beyond Aug. 22, 1999? On that day, the Navy's Global Positioning
Satellite system rolls back 1,024 weeks and starts over at Jan. 6,
1980.
The GPS has made available free of charge access to the time signals
of its cesium atom clocks. Around the world, industries that rely on
split-second time signals have taken advantage of this gift.
Now the question of software rears its ugly head. Has every industry
that is dependent on GPS time signals built into its software
automatic compensation, so that not a nanosecond will be lost when
the GPS rolls back?
This question -- on which the survival of Western civilization literally
hangs -- is not raised anywhere on the Web, let alone answered.
Here is what NERC, the U.S. agency in charge of coordinating the
y2k efforts of the U.S. power industry, has said:
"Energy management systems - Control computer systems within
the electric control centers across North America use complex
algorithms to operate transmission facilities and control generating
units. Many of these control center software applications contain
built-in time clocks used to run various power system monitoring,
dispatch, and control functions. Many energy management systems
are dependent on time signal emissions from Global Positioning
Satellites, which reference the number of weeks and seconds since
00:00:00 UTC January 6, 1980. In addition to resolving Y2K
problems within utility energy management systems, these supporting
satellite systems, which are operated by the U.S. government, must
be Y2K compliant."
That's it. That's as much as I have been able to find anywhere on the
Web about the electrical power and the GPS. There is not a word
on the rollback (or rollover). Nothing on the software conversion
requirements, if any. Nothing on any plan to make sure that the
industry is making specific plans to be 8/22/99 compliant.
NOTHING!
...
garynorth.com |
