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 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roleigh_martin

-- Roleigh Martin (marti124@tc.umn.edu), April 05, 1998

Answers

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!

Another question regarding railroad transport of coal to electrical generating facilities : as I recall modern locomotives are powered by diesel engines ( whether these engines have 'buggy' embedded chip engine control modules is another question )

What kind of diesel stockpiles do the railroads have ? Are the pumping mechanisms for diesel fuel liable to be affected by embedded system problems? And at a more basic level, given the uncertainites of the embedded system problems in the petroleum industry, will oil producers be able to extract crude oil, ship it and operate refineries ? Yes, there can be limited 'kludge arounds' using #2 heating oil and/or soybean oil -- God pity the diesel mechanic servicing the engine, though. But could diesel supplies be the real show stopper if the petroleum industry is hit particulary hard in the embedded chips in the production or refining end ?? . . . a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Jenny

-- Jenny Corey (UrthMomma@aol.com), April 09, 1998.