Power Pool Plans Smooth Transmission
New Year 2000 won't shock customers, utilities say
Editor's Note: This is another in a series of stories that will appear in The Recorder from time to time about the Year 2000 computer bug.
By Richie Davis
Recorder StaffWhen lights go out to celebrate the moment of New Year 2000, will they come on again?
As the calendar moves toward next Jan.1, when Y2K threatens to disrupt all sorts of computer-dependent functions, Franklin County utility customers may find comfort in a system set up nearly 30 years ago in the aftermath of the 1965 Northeast blackout.
That New England Power Pool system of generation and transmission backups, along with special precautions to brace for Y2K and the pre-digital vintage of New England power plants, should leave the region in fairly good shape, says its spokesman, as the system continues to be reviewed.
What may be the biggest factor helping the system, which is coordinated by an independent, non-profit Holyoke corporation, is that New Year's will take place on a weekend, a holiday, when electricity usage is likely to be low, says James Sinclair, spokesman for Independent System Operators of New England.
The ISOP, as it is called, along with the utilities themselves, is auditing internal and external computer systems for Y2K readiness and preparing for an April 9 "tabletop exercise" to demonstrate on paper contingency plans for keeping the region's electric system running. Another drill, on Sept 9, will include a mock run-through of those contingency plans, according to Sinclair.
The Northeast Power Coordinating Council, which created the power pool in 1971 and coordinates power flow in New England, New York and eastern Canada, is placing the region on a heightened state of readiness to deal with possible Y2K problems, which could arise when computer code that defined the calendar with only two digits causes interdependent systems to freeze when those calendars appear to move backward from "99" to "00" next Jan 1.
The North American Electric Reliability Council, which oversees the regional boards, last week predicted that there will be only "minimal impact" on electricity production and distribution, of the "nuisance" variety.
Precautions being taken in the region, according to Sinclair, include: · Heavier reliance at year's end on older, analog-based generating plants, which are less likely to be affected by Y2K problems than digital control systems.
In fact, said Sinclair, New England power plants date are mostly based on mechanical, analog systems, and so are less vulnerable that feature date stamping and microprocessing.
· Lighter-than-normal connections with New York and Quebec power sources beginning Dec. 31, so there is less dependence on other regions. Typically, Sinclair said, 15 to 20 percent of New England's energy is imported because decisions are based primarily on which plants are generating the cheapest electricity. In this case, he said, "Reliability, rather than the interests of commerce, will be the driver of the system."
Because next Jan. 1 will fall on a Saturday, with industry and business shut down for the holiday weekend, the load demands on the utility system are expected to be light, Sinclair said, but an extra layer of generating capacity will be on standby that weekend, and as business resumes at the start of the following week, just in case.
"Just about every resource will be available that weekend," he said, estimating the total - about 20,000 megawatts - is about twice the projected demand. "There are no significant plants that will be out of service."
Although connections with regions of New England won't be heavily loaded, Sinclair said, "The links will be in place" if they're needed.
By Jan. 3, he said, "We'll know how the generators are performing." If there are problems in meeting load requirements, the utilities can fall back on requesting that large industrial users cut back on demand, he said although some industries may have their operations curtailed anyway because of Y2K.
Paul Lipke, a member of a Montague citizen's task force that's trying to get the community thinking about Y2K preparedness, said the delivery of electricity and other services is as much dependent on very localized facilities, like neighborhood substations, as on regional systems and interconnections with outside suppliers and vendors.
Massachusetts Electric and Western Massachusetts Electric companies have been preparing for Y2K for more than two years. WMECO's parent company, Northeast Utilities, has completed tests on all of its generating plants, said Y2K Manager Philip DeCaprio. The systems remaining to be tested record various plant functions for historical data.
"The actual devices are not date dependent," he said. "They don't care what day of the week or year it is."
DeCaprio said 81 percent of NU's embedded computer codes have been tested for compliance, and nearly all "mission critical stuff" is scheduled to be tested for compliance by the end of June.
The utility, which serves 27,000 customers in central Franklin County, plans to deploy extra crews to stand by on Dec. 31 in case manual overrides are needed on switching equipment.
"Utilities are different kinds of companies because our emergency plans are exercised on a regular basis," he said. "We're working under adverse conditions much of the time, and we'll be enhancing our emergency plans for Y2K-related issues."
When it comes to next New Year's Eve, however, utilities will be joined by telephone companies, banks, insurance firms and other industries in keeping larger-than-usual emergency crews on standby.
Warren Weston, Y2K manager for New England Electric System, the parent of Massachusetts Electric, said critical areas still being tested include relay, or switching systems, as well the telecommunication systems that link customers with dispatchers and line crews.
"We depend a lot on Bell Atlantic," Weston said, although the utility also has its own backup microwave system.
Designed specifically to deal with disruptions in delivery of power, the regional system relies on direct microwave communication with generating plants, said Sinclair. Still, he said, the ISOP and the utilities are working with telecommunications providers - which in turn are doing their own Y2K preparations - to ensure that they will be able to communicate with customers and workers in case of any difficulties. A New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners has been coordinating discussions between telecommunications and electric utilities to ensure the systems can work together, he said.
|
Return Home |