Subj: Attack of the Dung Beetles - electricity [Important. Read this one!] Date: 99-01-08 13:41:09 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tony Toews) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In comp.software.year-2000, "Bobbi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [Ok, this one starts off a bit slow but it gets real interesting. Six months to put in a new crucial subsystem. Umm, what if the only two vendors in the world now have a twelve month backlog? Also note the "...local municipal utility, who supplies our back up power, ... [doesn't] believe in Y2K I was told." Tony] (Note: this was sent by my husband who is Operations Manager of a power plant, to several of his colleagues and friends. I am posting it for general info.) You know, I've been interested in this Y2K crap for a while now, as a kind of fantasy "Doomsday" scenario. Planet of the Apes, Conan the Barbarian, make a new go of it, all the good stuff. Being the instigator that I am, I liked to throw it out there it and see what kind of reaction I would get. Good study of people. The wife and I were preparing for a disruption in services, like the ice storm we had here last year. Folks around here didn't have power for a month. No water. The local comminutes ran shelters, fuel and food rationing happened, restricted travel, National Guard, that kind of thing. What goes around comes around. At work I got tasked from on high with fixing the "Y2K Problem." No sweat. The only thing that I figured would be goofy would be some software, mostly in accounting, other people interfaced stuff, and the older desktop computers. They needed to be replaced anyway. We and the World could muddle through. The major portion of the plants controls, (remember? I work at a fairly new power plant) although computer operated, were a different breed of machine, and care nothing about the date, they merely control their specific machine and send info to the plants main control computer, which operates valves and various other support devices for the main processes. No big deal. Investigation into the plant's main control computers also showed that it was no big deal, the only thing that (reportedly) would go wrong was some trending functions, which allow us to "look in the past" ( I am the master of the run- on sentence... On a dark and stormy night...) Checking some 40 odd control systems and over 400 circuit cards nothing showed. So far, so good. No indication of Y2K failures. Oh, I've got 2 systems, besides the trending thing, to software de-bug, but they only look to see if a pump has been running for a week straight, if so, the program shifts to the standby pump. Once again, no big deal. I am now down to the "stuff you never think about " level. Embedded chips. Supposedly the real crux of the matter. It seems to me that if the embedded chip doesn't have a people to machine interface, a read out of some sort, or operate on a calendar of some kind, such as: I haven't been serviced in 6 months so I will shut down function, then how could it know or even care, what today's date is ? Silly boy. I ran into a doosey of an "embedded chip." Three of them as a matter of fact. The only three I have looked at so far. This does not bode well... Doosey # 1: The plants phone system will not work. The manufacture of the chip says so. The rest of the system will, but if the brains of the systems don't, what part will? The manufacturer doesn't support this system anymore even though it was built in 1992. Doosey # 2: The meter which reads the total power output of the plant will not work. Who would check a simple meter? Here is the good part: This meter masquerades as a simple output meter, but in reality it sends a signal to the supplementary firing system which controls the Steam Turbine portion of the plant. 36 million watts worth. For $ 95.00 we can get the meter upgraded to Y2K OK status. Consider it done. Doosey # 3: The best one. The gas turbine's (the main source of power & heat for this plant and most power plants built in the last 15 years...) fire suppression system central processing unit will not work. The card manufacturer says "We never built anything like that," but I'm looking at the card...and they are sending me a test program for the "card we never built." I went to the manufacturer of the CPUs web site and by gosh, it ain't going to work... Once again, if the brains of the system are not going to work, what part will? That's not the best part. If the fire suppression system is down, the Gas Turbine will not start. If the Gas Turbine is running on Y2K date roll-over, the Gas Turbine will shut down. Violently. If the Gas Turbine is not running, the rest of the plant will not be running. NO POWER to the grid. We could send a false signal to the Gas Turbine to indicate that the fire suppression system is OK, but what would our insurance carrier have to say about that? It appears that I will have to have a whole new fire suppression system system installed, and that will take at least 6 months to do. On top of the pain in the ass factor of specifying the thing, I'll have to convince the Boss to spend the bucks to do it (at least $ 20,000 and 1~2 weeks that the plant will have to be shut down). Thats after it fails its Y2k test, like the manufacturer says it will. Crap. This Power plant is fairly new, and one would expect things like this to happen. On older plants, we've got no problem you say? Wrong-oh. All plants are constantly being repaired, replaced, upgraded. The manufacturer of choice for the utilities, (company name withheld), has major Y2K problems. Not counting the embedded chip thing. I called the local municipal utility, who supplies our back up power, to inquire about their Y2K status. They don't believe in Y2K I was told... They are doing nothing. They won't have a problem. I was told this this by their Chief Engineer. He also said he was taking all his money out of the bank by December next year. Kids, I think we are in the crapper. Bobbi -- Y2K -- Where are we now? Where are we going?" http://www.buzzbyte.com/ --------------------------------------- Additional comments later The municipal electric company mentioned (not named) is a small local village- owned cooperative that serves about 15 - 20,000 people. People in the industry, who run the power plants talk to each other constantly, and according to my husband, lots of things like this are cropping up all the time. He knows of another plant where the entire main control computer has to be replaced or that plant will not run. They haven't even started to replace it yet. It's real. ---------------------------------------------------- More comments later Okay, listen guys...just listen..... Ready? My husband works for an independent power plant - KEY WORD = independent. He doesn't work at a utility. The municipal utility Chief Engineer he talked to does indeed exist. For reasons pounded into the ground already here, we aren't giving names. Period. We are in northern NY state. That close enough? That's as close as we are gonna give as to location....for now. The engineer he talked with said what was quoted/paraphrased in the letter. As for the "taking money outta the bank" part...I dunno, it's what the guy said! Period. The plant my hubby works in is not providing electricity to the community - at the present time. They used to sell power to a *big* utility in NY state which I am sure everyone has heard of. But they don't anymore due to contract re-negotiations and other reasons (too political for me). They basically don't even run very often any more ....for now. They may be running *a lot* if asked to fill in for utilities that can't, etc....who knows? This is why hubby's working so hard to try and ensure that they *can* run without troubles. Anyway, hubby really didn't want me to post it. I nagged and he finally said "oh go ahead". It was a personal letter to friends and colleagues he knows *very* well. So...maybe I shouldn't have...but be that as it may...what's done is done. Now....if his plant doesn't run, it won't mean the community is without power. BUT... if the municipal company he talked with doesn't run, it *will* mean a community without power (about 15-20,000 some people). We do not live in that particular community. We live about 20 miles away in a different community (LOL...and our huge utility isn't doin so hot according to what I read). So, that being explained....the letter was just posted for general informational purposes, not to try and stir up *shit.* Honest. Hubby is frustrated because he reads and hears "all will be well" and he knows it won't. He knows it will be "rough going" because if his little (and it is small compared to the larger utilities) power plant won't run because of the few problems he has found -- another key word here -- SO FAR, what about the bigger guys? That's all. No big "whistle blowing" going on here. Simply trying to disseminate info. Plain and simple...that's it. And now, I am kicking myself for even trying to do *this.* Man oh man some of you people are unbelievably dense. Not you Whit....not you. :-) They know who they are. As for 10Q...well....I cannot find the local municipal utility on the resource listing I have. I also cannot find this same municipal utility on a web search (apparently they have no web site either). I cannot find them listed anywhere. Go figure. As for hubby's company, well.....nothing listed for them either. They have a web site but nothing mentioned at all about Year 2000 stuff. Well, 'nuff said for now. Bobbi ------------------------------------------------ [More comments. Note that one particular person who feels Y2K is a non event is severely criticizing Bobbi's postings. Tony] <snip> >(Bobbi, when was the last time this vaporous plant ran? What >is the output of the plant at peak operation?) Very good news. >We still cannot confirm one single fact of the story, now can we? Plant last ran in Oct 98. Output is 3 times what the entire county can use. (that is all my husband would tell me after reading all the junk that came out after I posted his letter) LOL. I don't care who believes it or not actually. It was just posted for general information. >Bobbi now admits that the number of people dependent on the >power plant in question is 0, but refuses to tell us the name >of the village with a clueless municipal power operation. I <snip> Well, hubby says he is "on them" and will continue to be. What he does with this info is his decision. I am just the messenger (gawd...I HATE being the messenger). As he says, there's a bunch of people in authority over the municipal electrical system, who are not even looking because "the only computer we have just looks at voltage and load." And he's gonna let you guys jump up and down on them when they haven't even yet realized they really might have a problem? I don't think so. They haven't even yet accepted the fact that they have to inventory and assess their system. They are complete DGIs. Really. So, hubby will work on this in his way and hopefully, will accomplish getting them to at least open their eyes. That's all he can do. BTW these guys don't generate, they just distribute. (hope that clears *that* one up). Dear bks, If you really want to hear something inflammatory, husband just told me that his fuel supplier is talking about "bugging out" and heading for Mexico! Bobbi ========================== Subj: Re: Attack of the Dung Beetles - electricity Date: 99-01-08 13:41:12 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tony Toews) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In comp.software.year-2000, Michael T Slaughter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>Carolina Power & Light Co. (major supplier of electricity in N.C. and owner of many power plants) stated in their SEC report that they are not going to check any embedded systems at all. In other words, their billing system might work, but they might not have anything to bill us for. The State of Alabama is not spending anything on Y2K. The City of Denver is not spending anything on Y2K. My own local electricity supplier spent a few hours looking around back in September. I have not found 1 person in 100 who believes in Y2K. So it is very believable that there are power plant officials who do not believe in Y2K. Michael<<<
