Has anyone heard of any documented utility problem related to the GPS rollover last night? We had none.

Jim

-- Anonymous, August 22, 1999

Answers

Good question Jim. I didn't work today, so haven't heard anything. Will see If I can find any industry information when I go in tommorrow, but our plants don't use GPS internally, so wouldn't expect anything there. T&D may have some GPS usage, will see if they have anything.

Regards,

-- Anonymous, August 22, 1999

I checked all of ours (three different kinds) yesterday, and they all seemed to work just fine. However, we had already replaced and upgraded our units, so we didn't expect any problems. None reported in neighboring systems...we'll know this week if anything happened to the grid...

-- Anonymous, August 23, 1999

All was and is well in central Florida during the rollover. Florida Power & Light hanging in there as they usually do with the excellent product they provide. Hope if they are bought by Carolina Electric that things wont change. (seems an odd time for power company's to be discussing mergers)

Did have a Y2K practice session with water. We lost our city water due to their losing pressure and we had no water for a couple of days. You know, it takes alot more water than you think to run a home at current level of use.

I am thinking about doing a Y2K practice next weekend by cutting off power and seeing what I have missed.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 1999

FF, Thanks for the story. I'm glad for your brother's sake that it's still summer, so that your brother doesn't have to go out in the snow to check his GPS system. A lost GPS in the winter could be really bad! :) Have a great day!

-- Anonymous, August 23, 1999

Many cars in Japan use the GPS systems, and apparently there have been many failures there this weekend. According to the posting on Gary North's site today, most of the streets in Japan don't have street names, so drivers rely heavily on GPS systems in their cars.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 1999

Neither AGC Operations, the plants or Transmission/Distribution operations reported any indications of operating errors or problems related to the GPS rollover. Also, no reports from neighboring utilities.

Norm, I believe that was Florida Progress Corporation that Carolina Power & Light was interested in... not FP&L.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 1999

I spoke with one of my contacts yesterday - their customer service GIS took a hit. No specifics yet; will post when available.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 1999