The comments below were snipped from another forum and raise an interesting thread that seems to have been ignored amongst all the discussions on power and Y2k.

I wonder how much of an impact these dirty spikes and surges will have? What effects will large fluctuations have on complex computer systems and would they have the power to trash the computer systems of major banks and telecoms?

Would they be able to turn around and destroy important parts of power generation and distribution systems, what if the cooling plants on nuclear plants burnt out?

Would they destroy the equipment in major manufacturing plants?

It seems that this problem could have the ability to do more damage than power going off and later coming back on.

Come the rollover, we will see all the power utilities frantically fixing their faulty systems, while at the same time the major corporations will be remediating theirs.

Seems to me that all industries should shut down and stay shut down until clean power has been re-established.

The last thing society needs is for 50% of its industrial componentry to be burnt out and needing to be replaced whilst all else is in chaos.

Am I missing out on something here or is this a thread that needs to be discussed more and the truth revealed?

The real problem, as I see it, is that no one is looking at the big picture. "Bad Electrical Power" Even the most conservative estimates claim from a few hours to several days of unreliable power. "Spikes and brown-outs" Spikes are when the voltage over-shoots the normal voltage by one to ten-thousand volts (or more) for a few microseconds. Brown-outs are when the voltage droops below average, for seconds to minutes (or longer).

Here is where the real problem may bite us in the butt:

Sophisticated electronic controllers are very sensitive to spikes. Most controllers are protected from average, or moderate, spikes. The spike protection circuits are designed in such a way as to need some recovery, cooling, time between spikes or they will over-heat and literally explode, like a small firecracker. The massive number of rapidly occurring and exceptionally high-voltage spikes, expected post y2k, may destroy millions of controllers, both domestic and commercial.

Regular old fashioned electric motors, the kind found in your refrigerator, municipal water systems, sewage treatment plants, factories, high-rise buildings, etc. are mostly immune to spikes but are easily ruined by low voltage (brown-outs). The longer the power is out the more the simple thermostats, water tank float-switches, and the like, have closed and are demanding power. When the power comes back on the load will be so high as to cause massive brown-outs. If one or two factories or buildings loose a few motors, they can order and receive replacements in 24 to 48 hours. If millions of factories must all replace motors on Jan. 3rd. of 2000, they are just SOL, and so are we.

Between the brown-outs and automatic circuit breakers opening and closing all over the place, the line voltage will be hopping around like spit on a hot skillet.

Dirty power is much more likely to cause more problems than all the controllers put together.

It seems that no one is looking at the big picture :-( - -JR

-- Anonymous, January 10, 1999

Answers

The SNIPPED piece begins and goes to the end staring with the words:

The real problem, as I see it, is that no one is looking at the big picture. "Bad Electrical Power"

-- Anonymous, January 10, 1999

I've seen comments suggesting that it might be prudent for the power utilities to require their major industrial customers to reduce usage to the absolute minimum over the rollover period.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 1999

From: Tom Carey Tom Carey said:

"I've seen comments suggesting that it might be prudent for the power utilities to require their major industrial customers to reduce usage to the absolute minimum over the rollover period."

Yes, and I've been convinced for some time that this *will* happen over next winter's holidays. Most industrial users of large amounts of electricity have agreed to a contractual requirement to shed load anytime their supplier asks them to. Why would they agree to something like this? Because it gets them better rates!

So the utilities can shed quite a bit of load simply by calling up these industrial users and demanding it. This happens quite rarely, most often during periods of high peak demand caused by heat waves.

What I don't know is how much of the total load on the grid this "shed on demand" stuff represents. If anyone has can find out, it would be interesting.

And if you work in a place such as a heat-treating plant that's full of electric furnaces, plan on being furloughed for a while, even if grid isn't down.

-Uwe-

-- Anonymous, January 11, 1999