Yourdon has mentioned the possibility that the celebrations are being run on generators, and someone else mentioned that embeds use GMT. Does anyone know if GMT is that standard for power grids elsewhere?

-- Christopher Brewster (brewsterc@excite.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

Of course they are being run on generators! That's how the electric companies make electricity. Come on now, stop being so paranoid. As for GMT, this has been hashed over a hundred times here. Result: Most embebbed systems and power companies run on local standard time.

-- Lurker (eye@spy.net), December 31, 1999.

Lurker is right on GMT (UTC). I was in direct contact with an engineer at Bonneville Power two weeks ago and he confirmed that power generation/distribution is set mostly to LOCAL time. There are a few exceptions where grids cross timezones, and one or the other is picked as the standard. I don't believe there are *any* grids running on UTC.

-- RPGman (tripix@olypen.com), December 31, 1999.

In a piece in the Knoxville News Sentinel yesterday, a TVA spokesperson said that all TVA clocks are on CST (a bit surprising since the headquarters are in Chattonooga, which is EST). TVA says that 63% of generating capacity has been running in "2000 mode" for months.

-- Les Holladay (holladayl@aol.com), December 31, 1999.