Bob is an Operations Engineer at the Middletown Generating Station
"Tonight I am at work. Of the four units, two are running when I came in at
1800. One of the units is due to be shutdown before midnight...not because
of any millennium issue, just because the load decreases at night and unit 2
can cycle (off line at 2300, cool down, startup and back on line by 0700)
quickly. Our emergency gas turbine generator is ready to start, if needed.
Along with the normal operating staff of 13 people, the station has brought
in 10 additional personnel. I am the engineering person.
We had a nice dinner at 2030. Then reviewed, one more time, the procedures
guiding the steps to restart the station in the event of a blackout. There
is no one left that was here for the last blackout in 1965. We have gone
over the procedures time and again, and believe they will work.
In the past couple of years, the utility has spent hundreds of thousands of
dollars identifying and correcting all software and hardware y2k issues. A
powerplant, especially an older one like Middletown Station, does not have a
lot of control equipment that is date driven. In many cases the worst case
scenario would be an incorrect date on a display or a chart.
We listen to the radio for news. Nothing abnormal seems to be happening.
We go through a few rounds of communication checks with CONVEX (the local
electrical dispatching authority). Everything works.
Still, as I write this at 2300, we wonder.
0019
The lights stayed on. The power grid remained stable. The phone works. We
can hear the fireworks up in Hartford. So far so good. I do wonder though,
how much of a difference we made...the big notebook of y2k issues and design
modifications will go on the shelf.
Oh well, so much of this work is preventative in nature...
Have a good y2k."
