I have a question concerning the NERC's coordination plan for the electric utilities. It was stated that the NERC "recoginizes that maintaining grid security during y2k transition is an international issue requiring coordination with the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments." How important is it to have coordination from Canada and Mexico for our power grid, and what is the relation of the U.S. and the Mexican power grid. If Mexico is not y2k compliant where in the U.S. would this affect, and also the same questions concerning Canada?

-- Anonymous, August 27, 1998

Answers

Canada and the US are very interconnected and dependent on one another from a power transmission perspective (particularly in the Northeast and Northwest). The interconnections with Mexico are not as significant. In terms of contractual obligations and/or treaties with both countries (not to mention NAFTA issues), disconnecting from either is probably a dicey issue. Hopefully, someone from NERC is monitoring this forum and can address this issue a bit more succinctly. To answer the question on coordination, it's important in both instances; to see potential areas affected, refer to an earlier thread on this discussion board regarding maps of the North American power grid and you'll be able to visualize the interconnection locations.

-- Anonymous, August 27, 1998

Regional grid coordination, including Canada and Mexico is the top most priority of NERC and other regional coordinating councils. Their website http://www.nerc.com/~ec/syscond.html about System Conditions has excellent documents for common public. One can download the particular document "1997-2006 Reliability Assessment" and the depth of coverage has be to really appreciated. NERC's Year 2000 site also has good reading materials. NERC is now actively involved in Y2k initiative and shortly test results and equipment inventory from various electric utilities will be posted on their website. In the coming months, NERC's Y2k website is worth following with regards to major Y2k issues from utilities.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1998