I just experenced a power outage of about 1 hour in length. (I live outside of Syracuse, New York.) The interesting thing about this is that it was AN ELECTRICAL SUBSTATION that failed. Power was restored quickly, and the area affected was small, but I know that they were doing testing. I belive that this is a y2k failure. I'd bet they just set the clock back and rebooted... SO what will they do NEXT year?!? Your thoughts?

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), December 21, 1999

Answers

In my community the power is a publicly held utility. Our service is interrupted on the average of twice a week. Can't ever keep the friggin' coffee pot timer set. During a storm (especially) you had better be sure to unplug everything or it is going to light up like a George Foreman Grill.

We are due for a bad time on rollover here. Dirty power, no power and all kinds of goodies. I have enough batteries on hand to power a nuclear sub to the west coast of the UK and back, probably. Local Police press release states extra officers called in from surrounding communities "just in case". Uh huh. Just in case my butt. You think they figure they "just might need 'em" ?

Wish me luck and I'll see ya on the backside of this mess.

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 21, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

South Salinas was down for a couple hours early this afternoon and they're blaming it on a downed wire. It came back in patches. The lights in some areas were working before a good hour before other parts came back on.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), December 21, 1999.

We had power go out this morning for about 2 hours. I live in NE Indiana. The whole county and parts of neighboring counties were out. Interesting

-- Dorothy (Hippie1959@aol.com), December 21, 1999.

Crono, my husband help "build" NiMo II. We lived in Baldwinsville for a couple of years and NEVER had any blackouts. You didn't perhaps have an "ice storm" today??????

-- Shlomo (steverromano@eaton.com), December 21, 1999.

Good luck Rob. It sounds like you live in one of those "marginal" areas of power service that Gary North was talking about. You'll be one of the first to be dropped off from your supplier source. Of course it could happen anywhere, but in areas that are already marginal it is almost guaranteed.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 22, 1999.

Shlomo-- no, it hasn't snowed in a while. it's too warm. what's your next guess???

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), December 22, 1999.

We will never know if some of the things that occur over the next several months are Y2K-related or not - after all, I would imagine that an isolated, 1-hour outage occurs somewhere in this country daily (if not several times). Last I knew, an electric company was not required by law to tell you whether or not an outage was 'Y2K-related'. First, we would have to agree on the definition of what 'Y2K-related' means. For example, I would call problems caused by a rush to get new 'not-quite-ready-for-primetime' software into place before 2000 a "Y2K problem". But already, several companies have disagreed with my position on this definition. They find themselves in the situation I have described and yet claim, in earnest or otherwise, that it is not Y2K-related. I quickly tire of such semantical pursuits.

Here in Iowa where I live, ice storms are always a serious threat to electrical infrastructure. We've been very, very fortunate the last several years and a truly devasting storm has not occurred here in recent memory. But they can and do happen. A severe ice storm may not come tomorrow or even this winter, but one will come eventually. I'd bet even Uncle Deedah's money on that.

However, as we move through the next several weeks, the underlying cause of any disruption is all but irrelevant. What will be far more important is the severity and duration. Severity both in terms of individual discomfort level and also in terms of the numbers of people impacted. Duration means how long it takes to either (1) fix the problem, or (2) put adequet emergency measures into place.

There is just not very much to be gained by arguing about cause. For now, we have more to gain by sharing information about the level and impact of any problems that occur. Besides, the lawyers will sort all the 'cause and effect' stuff out later - that's why the get the big bucks.

May all your glitches be as minor...

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), December 22, 1999.

Arnie: last labor day, we had a tornado come ripping through here, which knocked out power for 1-2 weeks! The thing about that was, NiMo promised that power would be restored within 12 hours! By noon, it was 1 day, on the second day it was 3 days, on the 3rd day it was "we don't know, maybe 7 to 10 days?" That was with people being called in from as far away as North Carolina and Ohih to help, and THE DECLARATION OF MARTIAL LAW!! The national guard was in plain sight too, and we were glad to see them! The storm itself lasted LESS THAN 30 MINUTES!! In fact, I SLEPT THROUGH IT! The tornado and accompaning storms ripped through the fair grounds killing 2. The good thing was that it hit at 1:30 AM, since the state fair was going on. 12 hours ether way, and the death toll would have been in the hundreds/thousands... BTW, the national media, from what those with power told me, TOTALLY IGNORED THIS!! Take what you want from this... 30 minute storm = 7 day power outage; 3 day storm = ?? ?years? ...

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), December 22, 1999.

Crono, could you follow up on this and find out just what happened. Some details on the substation layout would also be helpful. As in how many lines feedining into the sub, and at what voltage. How many interconnecting banks. The bus configuration, and the number of distribution feeders and their voltages.

Could you also say whether all areas fed from this sub went down, or just some.

If it was a Y2K issue, could also find out just what failed, and why?

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), December 22, 1999.

I have an in-law who works for our local power company here in GA. He's on duty on 12/31, as is pretty much everyone. He says its always their worst night for folks hitting power poles, etc., but he knows the volume of calls will be WAY up because everyone will assume it's TEOTWAWKI. Of course, it may be TEO...

-- nanook911 (rocki3@juno.com), December 22, 1999.

Dorothy,

Who is your electric company??? any more details? LIve in central Indiana....Email is real.

-- More Dinty Moore (dac@ccrtc.com), December 22, 1999.

Crono, this was Y2K, no doubt about that. Most likely, they'll be toast next year. I hope you're prepared to live off the grid for the rest of your life. If not, you're dead.

-- (lineman32@strelthic.prg), December 22, 1999.

Did a drive-by of the NYSEG maintenance facility today. Lots of interesting stuff parked in their equipment yard. They have four large trailer-mounted, substation-sized transformers on-hand. Never seen that many in one spot before.

But what caught my eye were the six semi-trailer tankers of diesel fuel. Seems like somebody isn't confident about fuel availability in the future.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), December 22, 1999.