Y2K Was: Re: POWER: San Mateo/San Francisco power outage report
Nathan Stratton
> > breakers on the substation. It also caused a cascade effect, tripping
> > the Hunters Point and Potrero power plants.
>
> > grid primary power sources. Aside from the human error, the system worked
> > "as designed to protect the rest of the grid."
>
> I suggest that causing a cascade effect and increasing the area of an
> outage isn't a good way to design a system.
I would agree, that is why I am worried about year 2K power issues. I
think for the most part everything is ok with most of the larger
providers, but I have talked to several smaller energy providers who will
not be ready for y2k. The systems that may/will (depending on who you talk
to) fail are normally not that big of a deal to restart after they trip.
The problem is that this could cause a cascading failure that would take
down most of the national grid. When you have something like that happen
it is not that easy to bring everything back on-line. As far as I know we
have never had the entire national grid fail, we have had large
sections (say New York, 13 north western states, etc.) of the grid fail
because of cascading failures that were caused by very small problems.
If you are a ISP, you better have your generators ready, I think you are
going to need to use them.
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><>
Nathan Stratton Telecom & ISP Consulting
www.robotics.net nat...@robotics.net
Nathan Stratton
I just wanted to clarify something, I got a few email messages from people
who said I was one of the nuts who is saying the world would fall apart
Y2K, I think everything will work out. I do not recommend anyone fill
baggies full of dried food, buy a gun, or build a house underground. I
think we will get though this ok.
I was just trying to point out that some of the power systems in the US
are very fragile and that it does not take a lot to bring the system down.
My recommendation on having your generator ready is something all ISPs
should do no matter what year it is. I do think we will have power
outages, but the systems WILL come back online and thinks WILL get back to
normal. This is a operational issue and we need to make sure our systems
are protected.
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><>
Nathan Stratton Telecom & ISP Consulting
www.robotics.net nat...@robotics.net
Jay R. Ashworth
> This is topic creeping so I'll close with one thought. Power
> is hard because: unlike TCP/IP bits, when things fall down,
> you gotta get RID of the stuff blowing back in your face NOW,
> or lots of things get turned to smoke. Suppose that when your
> big box of bits stutters; the box feeding you in LA didn't just
> stop, but halted & caught fire...and that meant YOUR box, that
> was picking itself back up, just did likewise.
Hint: AT&T, SS7, 1990.
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth j...@baylink.com
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Jay R. Ashworth
> On Wed, Dec 09, 1998 at 11:19:46AM -0500, David Lesher wrote:
> > This is topic creeping so I'll close with one thought. Power
> > is hard because: unlike TCP/IP bits, when things fall down,
> > you gotta get RID of the stuff blowing back in your face NOW,
> > or lots of things get turned to smoke. Suppose that when your
> > big box of bits stutters; the box feeding you in LA didn't just
> > stop, but halted & caught fire...and that meant YOUR box, that
> > was picking itself back up, just did likewise.
>
> Hint: AT&T, SS7, 1990.
David Lesher has kindly pointed out to me that I had a backhoe fade of
the brain shortly before posting this message.
Nevermind.
Forrest W. Christian
> I just wanted to clarify something, I got a few email messages from people
> who said I was one of the nuts who is saying the world would fall apart
> Y2K, I think everything will work out. I do not recommend anyone fill
> baggies full of dried food, buy a gun, or build a house underground. I
> think we will get though this ok.
While I fully agree with Nathan, having appropriate supplies around to be
able to survive a week or so without power or heat or water or being able
to buy food is probably a good thing. Regardless if it is January 1, 2000
or not.
- Forrest W. Christian (forr...@imach.com)
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iMach, Ltd., P.O. Box 5749, Helena, MT 59604 http://www.imach.com
Solutions for your high-tech problems. (406)-442-6648
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Roeland M.J. Meyer
>On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Nathan Stratton wrote:
>
>> I just wanted to clarify something, I got a few email messages from people
>> who said I was one of the nuts who is saying the world would fall apart
>> Y2K, I think everything will work out. I do not recommend anyone fill
>> baggies full of dried food, buy a gun, or build a house underground. I
>> think we will get though this ok.
>
>While I fully agree with Nathan, having appropriate supplies around to be
>able to survive a week or so without power or heat or water or being able
>to buy food is probably a good thing. Regardless if it is January 1, 2000
>or not.
It is always a good-thing(tm) when living in earthquake country <grin>.
BTW, underground shelters are also viewed as ready-made coffins around
here. BTW, any SF Bay Area ISPs effected by that little shindig on the
Hayward fault last week?
___________________________________________________
Roeland M.J. Meyer -
e-mail: mailto:rme...@mhsc.com
Internet phone: hawk.lvrmr.mhsc.com
Personal web pages: http://staff.mhsc.com/~rmeyer
Company web-site: http://www.mhsc.com
___________________________________________________
Who is John Galt?
- "Atlas Shrugged" - Ayn Rand