Link

This is good news for the metro DC area. I know they are stockpiling coal and there is also talk of Islanding (Cory mentioned this). Perhaps this area will have juice on some type of intermittent basis.

I cannot copy the page but there is a 4% failure rate in their embedded systems. That is very high and not expected. I thought this had been lowered to under 1% a while ago. It would seem that these systems will remain the great unknown concerning y2k.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), June 25, 1999

Answers

I have to wonder how much "truth" is coming out when these companys are reporting all this "good news"...one bit of bad news and poof!...that stock value thing...

-- BiGG (supersite@acronet.net), June 25, 1999.

(Insert legal blurb here)

PEPCO Utility Says All Critical Systems Y2K Ready 6/23/99 Author: Staff Reporters WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - Potomac Electric Power Co , an electric utility serving the nation's capital and suburban Maryland, said Wednesday that all of its critical power plant and power delivery systems are Year 2000 ready.

PEPCO informed the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) that 100 percent of its "mission-critical" systems are prepared for the millennial rollover.

"We completed our mission-critical readiness ahead of schedule with the understanding that electricity is the underpinning of our economy, and lots of folks depend on us," said Kenneth Cohn, vice president and chief information officer for PEPCO.

It is feared that many computer systems will crash on Jan. 1, 2000, creating a worldwide preventive Y2K effort to clean date sensitive systems of the potential bug.

Computer programs written to recognize only the last two years of a date would read "2000" as "1900," and possibly malfunction, causing operational problems.

PEPCO said it worked hard to finish the computer corrections ahead of schedule. NERC had set June 30 for all electric power systems to be Y2K compliant. A report on the progress was scheduled for release next week.

Previous reports from the electric industry found no major problems, and no expectations for widespread power failures and doomsday blackout scenarios.

PEPCO said within in its generating systems alone, more than 3,000 components were found to contain tiny microprocessors referred to as embedded chips. Although 2,532 were considered critical, fewer than 4 percent required upgrading, the company said.

Cohn noted that PEPCO has in place contingency plans to address potential, unforeseen Y2K problems. The company said it was set to coordinate preparedness drills with regional emergency management agencies, the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) power pool and NERC.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), June 25, 1999.

PEPCO Utility Says All Critical Systems Y2K Ready 6/23/99 Author: Staff Reporters

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - Potomac Electric Power Co , an electric utility serving the nation's capital and suburban Maryland, said Wednesday that all of its critical power plant and power delivery systems are Year 2000 ready. [snip rest of article} I hope both polly and doomer alike will want to analyze this passage closely. Y2K ready, IMHO, is not Y2K compliant (i.e., remediated, tested, verified and ready to rock and roll). Many months ago, I read a thread on this forum that admonished us all to be wary when agencies and companies start using Newspeak to redefine their state of non-compliance. It appears that time is upon us. Intelligent comments only, please. You up to that Y2K "Pro"?

-- Sandmann (Sandmann@alasbab.com), June 26, 1999.

Our local utilities and phone compaines both send Y2K information along with their bills. The news looks good.

My bank also said they would guarantee IN WRITING that our money is safe.

Looks like we are over the hump with Y2K.

-- Chilling (Preparing@optimistic.com), June 26, 1999.

Chilling,

Call your bank and ask them how they are going to prevent bad data from corrupting their good(compliant) data. I am still waiting for a repoly from a bank that stated they were y2k compliant. Let me know what they say.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), June 26, 1999.

Sandmann:

You said: "Y2K ready, IMHO, is not Y2K compliant (i.e., remediated, tested, verified and ready to rock and roll)."

I differ with your opinion on the definition of Y2k ready. YOUR definition reflects a lack of remediation, testing, and verification. Your definition also implies that these systems won't be ready to "rock and roll."

I see Y2k ready in a different way. For instance, many towns across the nation have easily corrected their traffic-control light systems simply by turning the date back 27 years. Is this technically compliant? No. Will it work? Yes. Y2k compliant can be defined by purists in the software arena as meaning that all dates have been expanded to include a 4-digit year. Is this required for systems to work? No. Although I would prefer that everyone used the same definition for Y2k ready and Y2k compliant, there seem to be MANY floating around. It doesn't make it easy to compare, but I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that Y2k ready indicates that systems weren't remediated, tested, verified, or in a position to properly operate.

Yesterday (I think) I did my weekly search of my town's website. I began communicating via E-mail with my town officials last summer, and like to believe that I was instrumental in their offering Y2k progress reports on the website. I think it was in February that they finally told me to expect to see something in March. As I tapped my foot in anticipation, they finally presented a fairly boilerplate statement toward the end of March, with further presentations to come. They have presented something new each month since. My most recent check uncovered a non-working link. I sent off an E-mail, and within an hour received an apology and the proper link.

The point of discussing my town's website is that when the term Y2k ready was used, they went on to give an explanation of what this meant. They also went on to describe contingency plans they had in place just in case. Compared to the boilerplate explanation offered in March, they're much more willing to give details now on their website. I suspect we'll see more of this as time goes by as firms and utilities realize that buzz-words simply won't cut it anymore and folks press them to provide details.

Anita

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), June 26, 1999.

To Chilling:

Re: gaurentee. The bank has to make that gaurentee every morning before they open the doors.

To Mike Lang:

Re: utility testing.

A statement in the news article about the Van Nuys water treatment plant failure says it all. The official mentioned the difference between "table top exercises" (logic based assessment of controls) and actual testing.

-- Tom Beckner (tbeckner@erols.com), June 26, 1999.

No, "ready" is not compliant. And they are only talking about mission critical systems, whatever that means. Let me give you an example. My own electric utility, Conectiv, has a web page for Y2k on which they state the following as of now. Total systems used in their business is 140. Total "mission critical" systems is defined as 21 (15%). They are now estimating that they are done with 88% of the *mission critical* systems. Is that good news? Will it be real good news when they say they are 100% done with the mission critical systems? (15%).

Anita, since you love to research these terms for yourself, why don't you go to euy2k @:

www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000zgc

You will find there some information about the source of at least one definition of compliant vs ready. Ready is a fudge word. But it's the best they can do for now. And on mission critical systems only.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), June 26, 1999.

The definition of "Y2k Ready", as it pertains to NERC reporting:

ftp://ftp.nerc.co m/pub/sys/all_updl/docs/y2k/clarification%20of%20report%20process%20an d%20criteria%20-%20final.pdf

Y2k Ready  Y2k Ready means a system, component, or application has been determined to be suitable for continued use into the Year 2000.

Note that Y2k Ready is not necessarily the same as Y2k Compliant, which requires fully correct date manipulations. The definition of Y2k Ready requires that the primary function(s) of the system, component, or application will continue to be provided reliably into the Year 2000. Although fixing or replacing a deficient system, component, or application to make it Y2k Compliant is one solution, achieving Y2k Ready status may also be accomplished through remediation. Remediation may include, for example, a software patch to display a correct date to an operator. Remediation could also be procedural, such as providing a highly reliable alternative that allows continuation of the primary function of the system, component, or application. Being Y2k Ready requires verification that each function necessary to reliably produce and deliver electricity is very likely to:

1. Not be impaired by a Y2k failure,

2. Continue performing satisfactorily into the Year 2000, and

3. Be sustainable indefinitely into the Year 2000.

Mission Critical  From a NERC reporting perspective, mission-critical systems, components, and applications are those used to produce and deliver electricity. Mission-critical systems, components, and applications are those that impact the ability to keep customer lights on or impact the safety of the public or employees. The NERC report template lists item areas that should be considered mission critical under the following sections: Non-Nuclear Generation Facilities, Energy Management Systems and SCADA, Telecommunications Systems, Substations Controls, System Protection, and Distribution. The items listed under Business Information Systems may or may not be considered mission critical according to the NERC criteria. For example, a customer call center used to identify circuits out of power should be mission critical. A customer billing system, although important to the utility, could be interpreted as not being mission critical to electricity production and delivery if the organization is able to continue serving customers uninterrupted by Y2k. The ultimate decision in interpreting its Mission Critical systems is at the organizational level.

Also, a partial list of others declaring "Y2k Ready":

Southern Co: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric

Alliant Energy

CSW: Central Power and Light Company, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, Southwestern Electric Power Company and West Texas Utilities Company

Central Hudson

Duquesne Light

Ontario Hydro

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-deja.com), June 26, 1999.

George:

I'm quite familiar with Rick's site. I prefer, however, to obtain my information from Harlan Smith regarding electricity and/or embedded chips. Mr. Cowles has already demonstrated that he offered half- facts in some disclosures. It's also my understanding that others besides himself have their finger on the delete key on that forum.

Harlan is more reliable, IMHO.

Anita

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), June 26, 1999.