A burst of solar flare activity around the millennium could wreak more havoc on satellite systems and power grids than the Year 2000 computer problem, a senior British Y2K planner said yesterday.

A surge of solar flares or solar storms that can shut down power grids and burn out satellites was expected to peak in late 1999 and early 2000, a conference for Y2K planners was told.

The last peak in the 11-year cycle of solar flares was in March 1989, when a surge of atmospheric magnetic activity shut down the Hydro-Quebec power grid in Canada, leaving six million people without power for days.