Please check out NSP's multi-web-pages about their Y2K project at:
nspco.com
Some interesting quotes at the web pages:
nspco.com
What can I do to help provide continual electric service for my facility/
workplace?
[snip]
Check your backup equipment. If you have a battery backup system or generator,
have it maintained and tested.
[snip]
nspco.com
Why don't you disconnect NSP from other utilities to reduce the risk of
outages?
Being interconnected provides the additional security of having redundant
sources. Customers almost never lose power when a power plant unexpectedly
stops operating. Through the interconnected transmission system, hundreds
of plants around the country help pick up the load until the host utility
can secure another supply. This safety net is a valuable tool to help NSP
keep your power on. We advocate that systems stay interconnected, but we
will be prepared to operate independently if conditions warrant.
[Note: this last sentence confirms their verbal testimony that they can
operate as an island independent of the grid if they have to.]
They promise to have this up at their web site soon:
nspco.com
[snip]
Contingency Planning
[snip]
What I hope they do is address the issue of whether they plan to stockpile
more than a month's worth of coal. The electric utility that services the
Washington DC area, when they testified to Congress, indicated they will
be stockpiling 3 month's worth of coal. When NSP testified to the Minnesota
authorities this year, they only committed to stockpiling a month of coal.
Now why is the Washington DC utility more paranoid than Minnesota? Minnesota
should be more paranoid -- it is colder here than there -- but perhaps the
federal authorities have given the local utilities more information about the
unreliability of things in their supply chain than they're giving out to the
rest of the country, or perhaps that utility is just naturally more fearful
(maybe they've studied the situation more), or maybe they fear the federal
authorities so much that they want to placate them. Or maybe all of these
guesses are wrong.
I just would like NSP to stockpile more than a month's worth of coal. According
to NSP's own web site, their Sherco plant burns 3 trains of coal a day; off
the record, I was told they burn (all their plants in total) burn 4 trains of
coal a day.
Anyway, finally, NSP is releasing significantly more information at their web
site and I commend them for doing this. This must be a benefit of the recent
YIRDA law which they reproduce (S.2392).
Don't just read the snips above, read the whole set of pages, especially if you
live in their multi-state region.
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From Roleigh Martin's site |
