Thursday December 16, 1999 06:48 PM

N.C. Utilities Say They're Ready for Y2K

RALEIGH (WRAL) -- When the clock rolls over to the year 2000, will your electricity and natural gas continue to flow? North Carolina's utilities say "yes."

Sometimes, we take electricity for granted. It powers our homes and businesses. Losing it is certainly a hardship and can even be threatening.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission says all power companies, large and small, are ready.

"We are confident there will be no service interruptions of regulated utilities providing services to their customers on that weekend and beyond," said James Little of the N.C. Utilities Commission.

Nuclear power plants will be fine. They are not controlled by computers and never have been. Power companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars fixing, upgrading and checking their equipment.

"There have been two national tests; one in April and one in September of this year, and they've had good results from those tests," said Little.

The commission will monitor the date roll over and even has a back up Y2K office. Power companies also have back up plans.

Dispatchers monitor CP&L's entire distribution system 24 hours a day every day of the year, and they will be working New Year's Eve.

There will be extra staff on duty to monitor 1.2 million customers.

"Our customers would expect us to be here so we can report back to them if there are any issues, but CP&L does not expect any problems at all related to Y2K," said Keith Poston of CP&L.

Little says natural gas companies are also ready.

"They have met with Transco who supplies North Carolina with gas to make sure that they were going to be ready," said Little.

There are skeptics, but those who run our utilities say Y2K will be no big deal.

If you do lose electricity around Jan. 1, you should not automatically blame Y2K. The cause could be an auto accident, weather or an unlucky squirrel.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), December 17, 1999

Answers

"Nuclear power plants will be fine. They are not controlled by computers and never have been"

I find that statement hard to believe!

-- Mark Hillyard (foster@inreach.com), December 17, 1999.

Say, OG, you must be standing in for Homer Beanfang this morning.

But let me get this straight. An auto accident? OG, was that your wry comment at the end of the article, or was that actually part of the article/newscast?

-- (resolved@this.point), December 17, 1999.

[For Educational purpoes, etc.]

The link/story below was posted in a thread here: http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0021GO

Link: http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/12/15/biz07.html

Shearon Harris reactor shut down

An electrical problem caused the plant's third unplanned shutdown this year.

By KARIN SCHILL, Staff Writer

NEW HILL -- Workers at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant halted reactor operations early Tuesday after an electrical problem caused a pump failure. The unplanned shutdown was the third this year at the power station.

Repairs got under way immediately, and the reactor was expected to be back on line early today, said Jeanne Bonds, a spokeswoman for the plant in southwestern Wake County.

"This isn't anything associated with the reactor. The problem was with the steam generation in the turbine," she said. "It was a ground-fault problem in the electrical system. It's an electrical part that could have been at any plant, not just a nuclear plant."

In January, two technicians accidentally cut the power to two of the reactor's three coolant pumps, causing the reactor to automatically shut down. Two months later, the plant was down again after the water in a steam generator unexpectedly started to rise and automatic safety systems again killed the nuclear chain reaction inside the reactor.

That snag came within days of a steam generator snag that forced Shearon Harris to reduce power.

Three unplanned outages and a near-outage are unusual for a plant that has had a record of operating well. Each time a reactor trips, CP&L stands to lose revenue, depending on electricity demand at the time.

"Our goal is to have no reactor trips, obviously, but this is also a reflection of the fact that the plant's safety systems work as they're supposed to," CP&L spokesman Mike Hughes said.

The Shearon Harris plant, which is owned by CP&L and the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency, has produced electricity since 1987.

Staff writer Karin Schill can be reached at 829-4521 or kschill@nando.com

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[Hope the formatting holds!!!!!]

-- Postman (keep@way.dogs!), December 17, 1999.

Staff Writer Karen Shill? Oh come on.

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), December 17, 1999.