I live in Massachusetts, and we have had record-breaking heat yesterday and again today. Our nuke plants are off-line (for maintenance before summer), and today the Governor of MA (RI and I think CN) had to declare 'A State of Emergency' in order to avoid a total blackout. They sent all State, non-essential, workers home at noon so they could conserve energy. They said they had to shut down the AC (because they couldn't continue to run the AC to keep the employees cool), lights, computers, etc. had to be turned off in order to conserve energy because they feared a blackout. They are still trying to evaluate if "rolling blackouts" will be necessary.

If you turn this around to Jan 1, 200 - 'winter' - and the nuke plants are down will there be enough power to 'heat' businesses, homes, factories, etc.....

Also, we have been asked to conserve water.

-- lucy2k (fben4077@aol.com), June 08, 1999

Answers

I used to live in the Hudson Valley in New York and I seem to recall hearing the old State of Emergancy routine once every few years, usually when it was hotter'n-a-bitch or colder'n-a-bitch. I wouldn't take that as a sign of things to come but more hot summers and four foot snow drift winters. I think by actually declaring a SOE the state can ursurp funds from other areas (most often eduaction) to pay for the demand in electricity or the overtime for the snowplow guys.

Anyway, I can sympathize with you about the conditions, hope y2k doesn't do extentsive damgage. As for me, I hope the same. Life in Hotlanta without A/C is for the birds.

-- (workathome@atl.ga), June 08, 1999.

http://www.bostonherald.com/

June 8, 1999

Second day of heat roasts Massachusetts

As a second day of oppressive heat blanketed Massachusetts with temperatures soaring into the nineties, state officials warned that electrical outages were likely unless consumers cut back.

Among the recommendations the state called for this afternoon included turning off all non-essential lights; cutting back on the use of appliances such as laundry machines; and curtailing the use of fans and air conditioners.

The state released all non-essential employees earlier today in an effort to save power.

With power reserves running dangerously low, state officials warned that outages could be imminent.

o Full Story

-- lucy2k (fben4077@yahoo.com), June 08, 1999.

I have lived in Massachusetts for 25+ years and never seen this happen. On our local news they said this hasn't happened in over 20 years. Only happened now because nukes are off-line, summer hasn't started yet, and they didn't expect these record temps.

-- lucy2k (fben4077@yahoo.com), June 08, 1999.

Good grief. You'd think it was the end of the world. TWO days of record breaking heat. We break records here every summer. Go stick your head under a cold faucet. It's supposed to end tomorrow. If that is a crisis, I'd hate to see what happened if you had heat for a week.

-- Have a life (BigDeal@whocares.com), June 08, 1999.

Have a life,

The crux of the issue is not about heat--it's about the availability of electricity.

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 08, 1999.

Meanwhile on the West Coast...

In Southern California the weather has been cooler than usual. In fact, there was snow in the local mountains a week or so ago...very strange!

It's funny that we always get warned about high usage and the possiblity of blackouts when demand peaks during a heat wave. All it takes is a peak in demand to cause problems.

So, if there are problems with disruptions in the production of or distribution of electricity due to Y2k and that in turn puts additional strain on the system then why would we NOT have blackouts?

I don't have any answers just a whole lot of questions and no matter how rosy a picture is painted it strikes me as odd that anyone could say with certainty that the power will stay on.

Mike =============================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), June 08, 1999.

If you want to get an idea of how well the utilities and government handle rolling blackouts, check this link out.

We forgot to notify police, fire or emergency management agencies? Oops.

We cut off power to the hospital? Oops.

We told everyone to prepare for 15 minute blackouts, but they were hours long instead? Oops.

5 loose metal covers knocked a nuke plant offline? Oops.

But hey, the power company knew why it happened....
"Selfishness, the antithesis of the holiday spirit, caused the Christmas-weekend power shortage that left hundreds of thousands of South Floridians shivering, Florida Power & Light Co. said Tuesday. "If consumers had kept their thermostats 4 degrees lower and had cut unnecessary usage, we would not have had to have the rolling blackouts," said FPL spokesman Gary Mehalik"

-- Online2Much (ready_for_y2k@mindspring.com), June 08, 1999.

Lucy - I work in a Boston high rise, private sector. We were notified yesterday to conserve energy, but no such warning today. (I understand from tonight's news that conservation efforts worked pretty well today, so I'm not sure why the state offices chickened out.)

It's not just regular maintenance of the nukes. Bonnie Camp has posted that during electrical testing at Pilgrim (during the shutdown), they fried one of the transformers, and it will be out for an additional month.

Jim Sinclair (operates the New England grid) explained earlier this year that New England expects to have twice as much capacity available as necessary at the rollover. Of course, that assumes average conditions (no major cold spell). One of the key contingency plans will be to have as many backup plants available then as possible, in other words, no scheduled maintenance. That creates a potential problem of having too much capacity available. If large customers shutdown over the weekend and power up suddenly on that Monday, the grid may have stability problems.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), June 08, 1999.

Online -

Did FPL send out multiple notices (mail and/or broadcast) asking folks to lower their thermostats? In other words, were the consumers informed?

If they were and then did not respond, then I can understand the "selfishness" tack. If they were not, then the writer and that FPL spokescritter are playing a pretty blatant blame game.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), June 08, 1999.

Brooks,

Thanks for the information re Pilgrim. Didn't know that.

Don't think the state offices chickened out, but rather a part of the conservation effort, as well as getting additional power from Michigan (I believe it was Michigan), and asking the public and private businesses to conserve energy. We were very close to a blackout, and not out of the woods yet (caution until 8pm).

Big Deal,

As Linmeister pointed out; the issue is not about heat. It is about the 'availability' of electricity.

Although I don't like the heat, I was born and raised in Texas where the heat is 90+ all summer and I do remember temps of 110. So 'heat' is not a 'big deal' to me.

My point is, if after only two days of record heat we have a near panic situation (local media words - not mine), and if only two days of record temps is such a 'big deal' as to cause our Governor to declare a State of Emergency due to fear of a major blackout then I question how reliable/stable/dependable our electric company truly is.

As for my life it is fine, but thank you for your concern anyway. J

-- lucy (fben4077@yahoo.com), June 08, 1999.

On line status of nuclear power plants!!! http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY//psr.htm

-- treading litely (rs@marketwatch.com), June 08, 1999.

for those of you who have paid, check out cory's statements of 99/06/06 (ISO Approved Date ((Note not Y2K compliant)))

Keep the faith

Helium

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), June 08, 1999.

The pathetic thing is that we are not set up to handle any sort of heatwave without massive amounts of AC- why are buildings constructed with unopenable windows that have to be mechanically ventilated? Why are houses built to need AC to stay cool in New england of all places? The overhang on our south roof is sized to allow winter sun to flood in and warm the house and to keep the higher summer sun from coming in and heating it- works like a charm- our south facing rooms are the coolest places in the house in summer!

We have built a system that is so technology dependent- on electricity, computers and more that we can't function without it- a preview of what's to come in my opinion...

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), June 09, 1999.

". Go stick your head under a cold faucet. It's supposed to end tomorrow. If that is a crisis, I'd hate to see what happened if you had heat for a week."

-- Have a life (BigDeal@whocares.com), June 08, 1999.

Yup, a tap with cold RUNNING water... if the powers down at rollover what makes you thing there will be running water - frozen pipes more like...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 09, 1999.

And today in Boston the temperature is a BIG 59 degrees!!!! Southie lost power on Monday night. Happens all the time. So i hear.

-- shell (msj11wm@aol.com), June 09, 1999.