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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (2373)	8/5/1998 6:46:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

'Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 16:19:27 +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: "Skip Baumhoefner, President/CEO" <skipb@wavetech.net> To: <year2000-discuss@year2000.com> Subject: Re: Sighting: Power Grid Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 22:17:21 -0500 Mr. Herbert Jacobi. Thanks for your reply. I totally appreciate your very clear discription of the potential problem. Perhaps what the witnesses were trying to state is that with all of the computer switching that if there were problems on the whole grid that it was not humanly possible to manually switch all of those manual switches to 1). hold the grid on line 2). Put the grid back on line. Your example is well taken in that you can maually switch the one you are working on but how would you manually switch all of the necessary switches necessary to restore all of the computer driven switches is or when there is a glitch. A sceond point, and I feel very bad that you thought or felt (or worse yet implied to my statement) I said that the 170,000 embedded chips ALL had calendars or date codes in them. I never said that nor did the witness. What he said was that to ensure what they did have, since they did not believe the manufacturer's statements nor in some cases even find the manufacturer, that they were testing all embedded chips for their confidence level. In their case, they had completed their testing and in fact were ordering new equipment or components. He than stated one of the most over looked facts (and one that could or may SINK many company's plans) the vendors were telling his company's purchasing agents to go away. There was no hope of filling their orders. And this utility is way ahead of many companies. They have been ordering equipment for this update for some months. And already they are being told No Hope of parts. Like many experts have stated, Too Late to Start Now. Thanks Again for your opinion. Please help us understand how you can manually take down the grid and/or put it back up. And if so, over what time frame. Skip Baumhoefner President/CEO ---------- > 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.