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Technology Stocks : Year 2000 (Y2K) Embedded Systems and Utilities -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (55)	8/5/1998 7:06:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89

'I am an electrical engineer with more than 20 years hands-on experience in the power industry (in New Zealand), but also another decade in the computer industry. Now working on Y2k issues in the NZ power industry, I have a foot in both the power systems and IT camps which makes for very interesting viewing _____ 'Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 13:19:39 +0100 To: year2000-discuss@year2000.com From: "Y2K Maillist (Via: Amy)" <amy@year2000.com> Save Address Block Sender Subject: Re: Sighting: Power Grid Reply-To: year2000-discuss@year2000.com From: "Richard Donaldson" <richard@utility.co.nz> To: <year2000-discuss@year2000.com> Subject: Re: Sighting: Power Grid Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 14:10:44 +1200 I have watched much discussion about the Y2K issues associated with electric power systems for many months now. Some very good points have been made, but there is also a huge amount of emotive misinformation being put forward. I would like to add my voice in full support of what Herbert Jacobi has said. Like Herbert, I am an electrical engineer with more than 20 years hands-on experience in the power industry (in New Zealand), but also another decade in the computer industry. Now working on Y2k issues in the NZ power industry, I have a foot in both the power systems and IT camps which makes for very interesting viewing. Having said that, I contend that for electricity systems and their embedded electronic technology we are "Mining For Diamonds". That is, the system faults or flaws are rare, hard to find and when found are very valuable. They are special design problems which are diverse in the way they manifest themselves. When found, they can often be worked around by simple procedures. Quite a lot of lateral thinking is required to devise mechanisms to expose them. If not found they may have devastating business consequences. This is very dependent upon the extent of system interconnection where these flaws are located. End to end testing of these interconnnected systems is therefore a vital step in the process. Our task today, for those involved in this work, is to meticulously screen every piece of equipment in the power generation and delivery process (and don't forget telecommunications), distil the equipment that is obviously OK from that which has a possible problem. Seek Y2K status information for what remains, then test and retest it. The end result will be high quality proof of Y2K status before the millennium transition, including a precise audit trail of what was done that demonstrates due diligence has been applied. "High quality" does not mean perfect, and therefore on top of this work it is imperative that there be contingency and risk management plans put in place to cover the possible consequences of failures. Given all of this, a power company has its best chance of survival without major disruption to its business or attacks from litigants. Richard Donaldson Director, Utility Services Associates Ltd Wellington, New Zealand ---------- > Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 08:21:00 -0700 > From: "Jacobi, Herbert - TNE" <hjacobi@bpa.gov> > Subject: re: Sighting: Power Grid > To: year2000-discuss@year2000.com > > While it is true that I am not a US Senator (aren't they just about all > lawyers?) and I haven't attended any Senate hearings lately: I am an > Electrical Engineer with 25 years working for the Bonneville Power > Administration (BPA). I've spent five years in Testing and Energization > installing everything from 500KV PCB's and Xfmers to 69kv breakers. > I've spent several years in Substation Engineering as well as Design and > over 15 years In System Protection and Control. > > All PCB's can be manually switched. They have a control handle both in > the plant\substation and at the PCB itself. They are switched by DC > (batteries) either 125 or 240 volts (occasionally lower voltages in very > small substations). This is true of 500KV PCB's (that's the big ones > on the Grid) as well as 13.8KV. distribution level. Every single PCB > in all of our 500 KV, 230KV, 115KV and lower Substations (which makes > up the Grid as you call it ) can be manually operated. Operators switch > them when they are taken out of service for the line to be worked on or > if work is done at a substation. The vast majority (99%?) of PCB's > don't have any chips in them at all. A few of the newer ones have boxes > for controlling the close on zero point crossing but that is not vital > and can be bypassed. And the chips are looking at the voltage wave not > the date and time. > > All disconnects can be manually switched. They have to be in order to > be opened an locked (physically locked) when a PCB is taken out of > service for maintenance. > > You simply don't know what you are talking about. > > I'm not really impressed with the argument of how many embedded chips > are in anyones system. It's what they do or more importantly don't do > that matters. Somehow people have this idea that each and every piece > of equipment has a chip in it and each chip MUST have a calendar in it > and this calendar MUST control something and WILL go wrong at the > transition between 1999 and 2000. And of course this chips MUST control > something (everything?) that's important or better yet vital. Sometimes > all they do is tell the date and time. We have a lot of relays that if > you turn them off the date and time reverts to a default date in 1975. > That should tell you how important the correct date and time are to > their working properly. > > Sometimes all a wrong date and time tell you is that the date and time > are wrong.

To: John Mansfield who wrote (55)	8/6/1998 2:31:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89

PacifiCorp - 'My actual experiences contradict the Jacobi plant age assumptions and = Skip's chip count projections.=20 In today's electricity generating world, the age of the concrete and = steel in a power plant is no longer an indication of the quantity and = quality of the monitor and control devices (embedded chips) being used = in the plant. In the PacifiCorp collection of generating facilities one = of the older steam plants (50 years old) has the most up-to-date Bailey = Controls digital master control system -installed about 3 years ago. = Looks can be deceiving and in this case a poor basis for projections. Some of the primary reasons for embedded chip devices, they never get = tired, catch colds, or get distracted - except for those with this "year = 2000 date" problem. Until now all of the previously noted attributes = have greatly contributed to the effectiveness and efficiencies of = individual monitor and control functions needed to keep the large plants = operating smoothly, while meeting the demand for electricity to keep the = world lit up and moving. Over the years, very few of the 16 steam plants and 53 hydroelectric = plants in the PacifiCorp inventory remain as so called = electro-mechanically controlled - there is too much of an advantage to = not upgrade to new devices monitored and controlled through digital = boards. Most of the plants operate with a token ring type of data = highway moving data across three distinct levels of process control = cards. Level 1 cards are usually attached to the actual device (valves, pumps, = motors, sensors) with very specific and limited program routines and = most times they may have a clock but seldom any century/calendar = sensitivity. In most of the Level 1 devices I saw tested and the chip = register specifications I checked this is what happened. Seconds rolled = into minutes, minutes rolled into hours, hours rolled into days, days = rolled into months and months rolled into years - all two digit numeric = fields. There was no century sensitivity, no concern for date specific = holidays, no logic reacting to specific dates, just a boring, consistent = clock counter incrementing and then rolling to the next level. When the = defined limit for each counter was reached the counter reset to the = correct base number: seconds at 60 reset to 00; minutes at 60 reset to = 00; hours at 24 reset to 00; days logically after 28, 29, 30, 31 reset = to 01; months at 12 reset to 01; and years at 99 reset to 00. In a = typical steam plant there may be a few hundred of these cards, = identifiable through device specifications and systems control diagrams. Level 2 cards were usually collectors for a series of Level 1 cards = monitoring a collection of devices and reporting or passing data across = the highway to the major systems control programs (SCADAs). This the = first level that we did find century sensitivity in programs and data = files - but nothing that cannot be corrected. At this level the number = of boards drop down to the tens, identifiable through area systems = control diagrams. Level 3 cards were the major systems control programs for areas such as = fuel supply systems, steam boiler systems, turbine control systems. = These systems are the primary interface for plant operators today, but = they can be overridden and manual controls can be invoked. Typically = these boards were limited to 3 for each generator turbine in an = installation. Our largest generating plant had 6 turbines. Steam plants = are the more complex systems, hydroelectric plants require less control = systems. Based on our local plant's Year 2000 closed loop process testing and = manufacturer device specifications less than 5% of the installed chips = were century sensitive, hence my difference of opinion with the very = large projection of the numbers of chips to be tested and in turn the = massive number of hours to complete the testing. Our project teams are = not finding those sorts of numbers, in fact considerably less. I = realize there is always a danger when making generalizations, so I = caution the reader to remember these comments are based on experiences = at one electric utility and I am not trying to make a position statement = for the industry as a whole, but..... Remember the watch word for the PacifiCorp Year 2000 project teams is - = "keep the lights on for our clients, our partners, our communities and = our employees". Wayne Horscroft - a recent retiree from PacifiCorp Personal questions by email welcome - orkiwi@gte.net _____ 'Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 12:42:56 +0100 To: year2000-discuss@year2000.com From: "Y2K Maillist (Via: Amy)" <amy@year2000.com> Save Address Block Sender Subject: re: Electric Power Grid - Projections Reply-To: year2000-discuss@year2000.com From: "R Wayne Horscroft" <orkiwi@gte.net> To: "Y2k Mail List" <year2000-discuss@year2000.com> Subject: re: Electric Power Grid - Projections Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 00:56:12 -0700