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http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=66002

Tuesday, 22 February 2000 15:36 (ET), By HIL ANDERSON

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22. (UPI) -- Although not as ominous a threat as the Y2K bug, the extra day that occurs only in Leap Year has the electricity industry concerned.

February usually has 28 days, but next Tuesday will the 29th, and that could be a concept that does not compute. To be on the safe side, the companies that handle the flow of electricity around the United States and Canada have drawn up contingency plans similar to those that were in place as 1999 gave way to the year 2000.

The North American Electric Reliability Council said Tuesday it would be on alert from Feb. 28 to the afternoon of March 1 to make sure an unexpected computer glitch doesn't turn out the lights.

"NERC's Leap Date Monitoring Program will not be as resource intensive as the millennium rollover because the industry's excellent experience that weekend supports a reduced level of staffing," NERC President Michehl R. Gent said in a release. "The industry will still have sufficient staff on duty to keep the lights on while dealing with credible Y2k contingencies as well as normal day-to-day contingencies."

NERC is made up of the 10 reliability councils, multi-state agencies established around the United States and Canada that handle the transmission of large amounts of so-called bulk power. The NERC plan for Leap Year mirrors the Y2K strategy. Extra staff will be on duty in the reliability council control rooms. Conference calls will be set up among the various councils to see if any problems have cropped up as midnight occurs along the various times zones from the East Coast to the West Coast, to Hawaii.
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Oh our gosh, a totally On-Topic article :-)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 22, 2000

Answers

Thanks A & L,

We all certainly appreciate an On-Topic post or two :-)

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), February 22, 2000.

In 1996 we noticed most of our grocery receipts were off one day the rest of the year ...

We're doing much better now than Rollover Eve, whew! We'll just unplug everything @ 5/p Pacific Time and most likely plug it all back in late the morning of the 29th. Easy routine, and better than leaving our gizmos vulnerable to any minute possibility of zaps, dims, surges, or any fluctuations.

Yahooooey! Keep the miracle holding, keep the good times rolling!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 22, 2000.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Attached in Acrobat 4.0 is a press release from the North American Electric Reliability Council. It is also posted on the following NERC web site: http://www.nerc.com/pressrelease/.

The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) will monitor the Year 2000 (Y2k) leap date transition from late in the afternoon on February 28 through the afternoon of March 1. "NERC's Leap Date Monitoring Program, however, will not be as resource intensive as the millennium rollover because the industry's excellent experience that weekend supports a reduced level of staffing," says Michehl R. Gent, President of NERC. He adds that "the industry will still have sufficient staff on duty to 'keep the lights on' while dealing with credible Y2k contingencies as well as normal day-to-day contingencies."

Sincerely,

Heather Gibbs

-- mommacarestx (mommacarestx@mail.com), February 22, 2000.

Good post A&L. Thanks much!

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 22, 2000.

Thanks for the on-topic post, A&L. I'll be one of the lucky ones monitoring the power system those two nights...

I am curious; why do you unplug your appliances at 5pm? The Western grid doesn't begin to roll over until 11pm Pacific Time. And why plug back in on the 29th? Why not wait until the 1st of March, when the leap day rollover risk will be over with?

In my personal opinion, there is essentially ZERO risk of a date- caused power fluctuation. To put it another way, the risk is less than it was during the rollover to January 1, and, since there weren't any outages then, well, you know the rest...

-- Dan the Power Man (dgman19938@aol.com), February 22, 2000.

Hi Ashton and Leska

surely no-one really expected y2k power outages, just problems with business software

-- Sir Richard (richard.dale@unum.co.uk), February 23, 2000.

The likelihood of the power going out is teeny itsy bitsy, BUT the major inconvenience IF any appliances / gizmos were to be damaged makes it prudent *for us* to take a very easy precaution JUST IN CASE :-)

PST (Power Surge Topic) >> Massive Power Surge Disables Business, Homes (CA)

Yikes! This is why we unplug whenever we think there's even a *remote* possibility of power fluctuations. Ounce of prevention worth far more than a pound of cure. The Stakes!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 23, 2000.