Gary writes:

> It looks like Santa Fe, NM is going to have a y2k moment on 1/1/00.  How
>  close is that to you Wirt?
>
>  http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/12/3/45221

Three hundred miles, not close enough to likely do any damage. However, about
five years ago, we were getting quite used to having our power go out on a
regular basis -- and stay out for sustained periods of time (several hours to
a full day).

The problem wasn't due to the local electric company or its generators.
Rather, it was because of WEST, a consortium of electric companies all over
the western US that have tied themselves together to share generation and
distribution facilities and responsibilities. As a consequence of that
sharing, every participant found that they could reduce their standby
overcapacity substantially, thereby substantially reducing overall operating
costs.

The problem that lasted for well over a year here was that there are three
primary high-voltage tie lines that supply New Mexico, principally from the
direction of Arizona. When any one of these lines faulted, for any reason,
all of the load was immediately transferred to the other two lines and the
local generating facilities, which weren't up to the sudden increase in load
-- and so they instantly faulted too.

Three times within the space of a year, almost all of New Mexico and West
Texas went dark for several hours. Two million people were in the dark. If
this event had happened to any place on either coast, it would have been the
lead 5-minute story on the evening national news. As it was, it was either
not mentioned at all or barely rated a sentence.

Under pressure from every regulatory board imaginable, the problem has been
solved by simply increasing the amount of standby capacity that is now always
on line.

I'm sure that they're going to have everything cranked to the max on New
Year's eve everywhere. The WEST model has spread all over North America now.
I'm sure that a lot of people will be standing by to break the interconnects
at a moment's notice.

Wirt Atmar