I have heard it said that utility companies and city water departments have manual over ride to bypass their computer controlled operations in the event of failure during y2k. Is this true and if so, is there some chance that it will still result in some lowering of available service?

-- Tim Applegarth (appleone@azalea.net), June 02, 1999

Answers

I think that is a safe assertion, unless your water company is already operating on manual (not all municipalities upgraded their systems in recent years). When they work, computers speed up things considerably. Not just utilities but everything will be slower and service will be very uneven (I am assuming there WILL be some service and not total collapse, and that some computers will still work). IMHO, there could be a new equilibrium reached at 1950s or 1960s service levels. It's that first rough adjustment, dontcha know . . .

I am expecting power and water rationing in my town next spring. We restricted water usage in the last drought and will likely do it again. Hopefully we won't ration power next summer! It gets too hot here to skip the A/C. I haven't got alternative power for winter, but I might put together something for the summer.

(whew)

-- Margaret (janssm@aol.com), June 02, 1999.

Hi Tim,

the fastest way to get the most complete answer to that is going to be to go through the utilities portion of the forum archives (see the bottom of the main page) for the words 'utilities' and 'islanding' or 'isolating from the grid'. you'll find there's been a fair amount of discussion on just that topic!

Arlin Adams

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), June 02, 1999.

* * * 19990602 Wednesday

At a public conference 2 weeks ago, a spokesperson for Wayne County, Michigan, expressed concern about pumping water up the may floors of the County Prison. It requires electrical pumps. They have generators to assure that.

What about the law abiding high-rise apartment dwellers? Where are these political jerks priorities?

Get your ammo while it is still available... Prison cells could empty pretty quickly...

Regards, Bob Mangus

* * *

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus@hotmail.com), June 02, 1999.

Hello Tim. I'm gonna "shock" more than one person on this forum with my answer: For a larger power company that uses a rather sophisticated energy management system, the answer is no, they can't bypass this system for very long and continue to operate effectively.

Ms. Squire, does this qualify me as "balanced"? (:-P)

-- Dan the Power Man (dgman19938@aol.com), June 03, 1999.