Power plants across western UStates to operate at reduced rates on 31st

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) Rollover/Back-Up Forum : One Thread

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Major power plants across the western United States will operate at reduced rates on New Year's Eve in a move that will allow electric companies to increase power output in case of any Y2K problems,

The reason for the limit, which takes effect around 9 p.m. PST (midnight EST) on Friday, is to allow more power plants to operate, thereby reducing the impact should a unit trip off line during the transition.

"We're limiting the amount of generation out of some of the larger base load plants," said Bill Comish, Y2K coordinator for the Western Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC), a regional electric reliability council for 14 U.S. states, two Canadian provinces and a small part of Mexico.

Comish said that all power plants able to generate more than 300 megawatts have been asked to cut their output to a maximum of 80 percent of capacity.

"Generation has to match the load," Comish said, noting the region's demand for power around midnight is expected to total around 82,000 to 83,000 megawatts, lighter than normal for a Friday evening.

"Some customers plan to shutdown as a precaution and some would normally shut down for the holiday anyway," he added.

Two exceptions have been granted, both to nuclear power plants. The Palo Verde plant, at Winterburg, Ariz. will reduce output to around 95 percent and the San Onofre plant at San Clemente, Calif. will remain at 100 percent.

"Palo Verde didn't feel they could back below 95 percent safely and San Onofre asked to stay at 100 percent," he said.

The region's other nuclear power plants, Diablo Canyon, near Avila Beach, Calif. and WNP-2 near Richland, Wash. will reduce their output to no more than 80 percent.

Capacity on the region's key transmission lines also will be reduced from 9 p.m. PST on Friday.

The AC Pacific Intertie, which carries electricity between the Pacific Northwest and California, will be cut to 1,400 MW, southbound, and 500 MW, northbound, down from normal maximums of 4,350 MW and 3,675 MW respectively.

The DC Pacific Intertie, which carries power between the Northwest and southern California, will be cut to 1,086 MW, southbound, and 1,259 MW, northbound. Normal Maximums are 2,721 MW and 2,858 MW respectively.

Reduced transmission limits allows the system to be more forgiving should outages occur and also provides capacity that can be used to help buoy up areas that experience supply difficulties.

Early on Saturday morning, the WSCC expects to be able to lift its restriction and allow normal operations to resume.

"By two o'clock Pacific time in the morning we will have a pretty good idea of where we are going. At that time we expect to make a decision to go back to normal operations," Comish said.

-- merville (merville@globalnet.co.uk), December 30, 1999

Answers

Watch for dirty power during this transition. There could be problems with this even as a pre-planned event.

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 30, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ