Powergrid failure might be earlier than expected.

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Just surfing and reading...got this tidbit... From a site visitor: In certain crucial areas the calendar rolls over to 2000 on December 31, 1999 at 7:00 PM EST, not at midnight. This is because most computers dealing with international commerce use UTC (formerly Greenwich) time. Also the electrical power grid uses UTC time. This was told to me by an official (name withheld by Cody) of Northern States Power in Sioux Falls, SD. Hmmm...if this is true, the country may have to do without Dick Clark and the giant mirror ball this

Link

year, not to mention doing without nearly everything else in 2000.

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), December 19, 1999

Answers

Yea, this is true, but don't forget to factor in TIME DRIFT!

-- Tommy Rogers (Been there@Just a Thought.com), December 19, 1999.

This may mean that we won't get a 17 hr preview....just 5 hrs...if the utility companies in East Asia set their clocks to UTC.

-- Russ (aa2gs@isoc.net), December 19, 1999.

5 hours? how about no warning at all. I they run on UTC and we run on UTC, failures could occur simultaneously.

-- tree (thetrees@bigfoot.com), December 19, 1999.

*Most* financial -- and a *lot* of power distribution stuff -- should not be subject to time drift issues, as they're of necessity locked into *very* accurate sync via GPS satellites. They have to be in sync for a variety of reasons.

The fly in the ointment are embedded controllers in power distribution that have not been remediated -- or not *located*. But the main (non-embedded) systems *should* be locked to precise, accurate time. Whether or not they can correctly handle "rollover" is an entirely separate matter, but FWIW, the event should happen for them at the correct time and day.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 19, 1999.


I have been trying to figure out why there would be a state of emergency called on Dec 28th, knowing this could not be done prior to the need for it to occur, because it would fuel the emotional fire, so to speak, of the people who have refused to take any action, but are aware of the consequences, which are probably 50% or more of the populace.

Well, there is a *reason* for the govies to expect chaos early and to be discussing possible panic/mayhem on Dec 28th. Perhaps they know more than we think they do.

Of course they do. We shall see.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), December 19, 1999.



For your early warning just watch us here in New Zealand. We are the first industrialised country in the world to roll over to the new year, and our grid does not use GMT. None of our power stations use GMT, and from other people in the industry around the world that we have been in contact with, they all appear to use local time as well. It may be possible that there are some utilities in the USA that are somehow running on GMT, but I haven't been able to find any confirmation of that.

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), December 20, 1999.

Thanks Malcom, I don't know how many times I have to say this, the "grid" doesn't "run" on ANY time, not evenUTC, it runs on 60 cycles in the US...;) Basically, though, the question is what do the power companies set their clocks to in the control systems....all are on local time, to be best of my knowledge. The only exceptions I have heard are with some EMS scada systems set to UTC, but many are GPS converted to local. There will be no significant problems with power or the grid in the US, but if you want to know the time of concern, it's 12:00 Mindnight...YOUR time ;)

Regards,

Regards

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), December 20, 1999.


I have not heard an answer to the question of what time embedded chips are set to. Say a certain factory makes a batch and thos chips get sent both east and west. Are they set at factory time? UTC?

-- Shivani Arjuna (Sarjuna@aol.com), December 20, 1999.

Here's what one article has to say about this. I haven't seen much hard info out there on the time question.

http://www.capitolalert.com/news/old/capalert01_19990927.html

[snip]

The reaction could be influenced not only by Y2K problems developing in Asia, Europe and Africa, which will ring out 1999 ahead of the United States, but also in this country. A large chunk of the nation's electric grid, for example, operates on Greenwich Mean Time, meaning its computers will flip over to 01/01/00 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on New Year's Eve.

[snip]



-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 20, 1999.


Nice one Linkmiester...and then there's those crazies over at MIT who also want everything nice and tidy by GMT.

-- (karlacalif@aol.com), December 21, 1999.


http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0022gd

[snip]

MIT originally planned to shut down all its elevators for 30-minute periods straddling both the Greenwich Mean Time change to 2000, occurring at 7 p.m. New Year's Eve in Boston, and again for 30 minutes beginning at 11:45 p.m. on the 31st.

That plan was based on fears that power failures related to Y2K could leave someone stuck between floors if they happened to be riding an elevator right as midnight arrived in London or Boston. Tests have shown the computer chips in elevator microprocessors throughout the campus are fine, and MIT's own power plant, which serves most of the campus, is expected to be fully Y2K-ready, Isaacson said.

Isaacson said officials have since concluded that ''the cure may have been worse than the potential problem'' and will leave elevators running all of New Year's Eve. But, he said, ''We have elevator mechanics who are normally on call who will be on site'' to work on any problems that arise.

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 21, 1999.


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