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-- Anonymous, March 07, 1998

Answers

Just a quick hello to this forum: I'm Lane Dexter, Sr. Hydroelectric Operator, 24 years with Seattle City Light. I'm at Gorge Powerhouse, on SCL's Skagit Hydroelectric Project. This is in the northernmost county in Western Washington State.

I'm definitely not a computer whiz, but I am very concerned about Y2K. I feel many of our older hydro plants may be better off than most generating stations, but I expect our computerized System Control Center to have problems. I was called out shortly after midnight this New Year's and spent several hours manning the plant due to computer clock problems -- apparently, the SCC computers couldn't agree on exactly when events happened, so we crashed.

I'm very interested finding out how many established hydro plants have upgraded control systems and become more computer (or embedded chip) dependent and Y2K vulnerable. For example, Grand Coulee's third powerhouse is relatively new and represents a very large block of generation. Of even more concern is Coulee's pumping capability; it makes the difference between growing edible crops in a large part of Eastern Washington and growing sagebrush.

For what it's worth, Woodward Governor Company tells me the new Summit 517 governors we're installing here are Y2K compliant. They're still considerably more awkward to restore after a K/O, but we're supposed to be fixing the sofware.

All the Best, Friends. Let's Keep the Lights On.

Lane Dexter

-- Anonymous, March 11, 1998

I am a Systems Protection Engineer with the Bonneville Power Administration. My primary interest is in our relaying, monitoring and controll devices. I'm trying to seperate the 'hype' from the reality. I've been looking around the internet and while there are lots of stories out there very few are supported with facts (as opposed to factoids).

-- Anonymous, April 06, 1998