Check this out:

Utility Officials Discount DOE Report of Y2K Readiness

http://www.appanet.org/news/ppw9909-13-01.html

Also lists rural cities that are not Y2K compliant...so much for rural living.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 11, 1999

Answers

Appanet 'can't find the requested page'. Link?

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), September 11, 1999.

This link works for me

http://www.appan et.org/news/ppw9909-13-01.html

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), September 11, 1999.

I'm not a linkster, but go to your search engine and type in "American Public Power Association," then on the right hand side click onto "Press Releases." You'll see the headline first.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 11, 1999.

"Campirano noted that DOE also issued the names of 16 municipal and cooperative utilities that had not reported the status of their Y2K work. Those utilities do not come off as being poorly prepared; DOE simply does not know about their state of readiness, he said. "We [at Brownsville] would have been better off not reporting," he said.

This is why we get so little real Y2K information.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), September 11, 1999.

Forrest--If we keep digging, I bet we can find out who those 16 cooperatives are. I listed 12 utilities that are behind in Mumsies thread below "Feedback Please on Wall St. Article." Even so, those utilities are on the power grid and it does make a difference.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 11, 1999.

16 names...

Text: Energy's Richardson Names Electric Utilities Not "Y2K-Ready" (USIS Washington File)

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 001OCL

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 11, 1999.

Thanks Diane, you are a far better detective than I am. I wonder what the impact will be on the grid, any thoughts?

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 11, 1999.

American Public Power Associations article from above link..

http:// www.appanet.org/news/ppw9909-13-01.html

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Utility Officials Discount DOE Report on Y2K Readiness

The Department of Energy put out misleading information Sept. 8 when it charged eight U.S. electricity suppliersincluding four public power utilitieswith being unprepared for the transition to the year 2000, say four of the eight.

In a DOE press release, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said he was worried that "there are still eight major electric utility providers that are not yet Y2K-ready, or are Y2K-ready with limited exceptions." DOE named four public power utilities as among the laggards: City Public Service of San Antonio, Texas; the city of Lakeland, Fla.; Brownsville, Texas, Utilities Board; and Lafayette, La., Utilities System. But spokespeople for all four utilities told Public Power Weekly late last week that they are ready for the year 2000.

In a press release of its own last week, San Antonio City Public Service, which serves 536,000 meters, discounted the DOE report. As of June 30, the city had tested all mission-critical systems and found them ready, with one exception, San Antonio said. That exception was its continuous emissions monitoring system, which is scheduled to be upgraded next month, said Betty Williams, a spokeswoman for the utility. The emissions monitoring system does not affect the citys ability to produce or deliver electricity, she noted. "As far as were concerned, we should not have been on [the DOE list]," she said.

"Were doing everything were supposed to be doing," said Eduardo Campirano, assistant general manager in charge of Y2K preparedness for the municipal electric utility in Brownsville. In a report to DOE in July, Brownsville said it had corrected all its deficiencies except for a problem with its telephone system, which was to be fixed by the end of September, he said. But apparently the person at DOE who was supposed to get the report did not receive it, Campirano told Public Power Weekly. "He got the letter accompanying it, but not the report itself," he said.

Campirano noted that DOE also issued the names of 16 municipal and cooperative utilities that had not reported the status of their Y2K work. Those utilities do not come off as being poorly prepared; DOE simply does not know about their state of readiness, he said. "We [at Brownsville] would have been better off not reporting," he said.

"Were Y2K ready, are you?" said Terry Huval, director of utilities for the Lafayette Utilities System, when reached for a comment on Sept. 9. "As of yesterday afternoon, we got acknowledgement that we were ready," he said. "We have 513 MW of power that is ready and we expect a load of 212 MW on Jan. 1," he said. That is ample margin to be confident that there will be no shortage of electricity, he said. Lafayette was on the list of those not yet ready because testing had not yet been done on two generating units, he explained. Huval said he did not want to do the testing during the peak of the summer heat, so waited until recently to get the task done.

"Frankly, we were very disappointed that they [DOE] did this," said Mimi Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the city-owned utility in Lakeland, Fla. "Its very misleading." Lakeland Electric "is 100% ready for the year 2000," she said. The utility was a few days late filing a report, which may be why the utilitys name was put on the list, she said.

"Were ready," said Ron Tomlin, assistant managing director of Lakeland Electric, in an interview published in the Sept. 9 Lakeland Ledger. "I would never look you in the eye and tell you nothing could happen, but I feel confident that we are ready for the year 2000."

The other four electricity suppliers named by DOE as being ill prepared for Y2K are: Central Louisiana Electric Co.; Cogentrix Energy Inc. of Charlotte, N.C.; Milford Operating Co.; and Plains Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative in Albuquerque, N.M.

The list DOE prepared was based on data supplied to the North American Electric Reliability Council. Ron Niebo, a spokesman for NERC, said the Lafayette Utilities System and Plains Electric G&T were listed incorrectly as Y2K problem utilities. Lafayette is fully ready for the year 2000 and the co-op is "ready with limited exceptions," he told Public Power Weekly.

The list DOE was using was based on Sept. 6 data, Niebo said. "Weve had a couple of changes since then and there were a couple of errors," he said late last week. "DOEs been notified."

The list of 16 municipal utilities and co-ops that DOE said had not reported their Y2K plans includes the town of Lingle, Wyo., which has fewer than 300 meters and no computers or digital equipment. The other municipal utilities are: city of Albion, Idaho, which has 150 meters; city of Herndon, Kan., with 170 meters; city of Mansfield, Mo., with 680 meters; village of Cygnet, Ohio, with 252 meters; and Maricopa County, Ariz., Electric District No. 8, with 295 meters. Also included are 10 rural electric cooperatives that likely dont have any computers or digital equipment, according to an official with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. "When youve got 100 days to fix nothing, its a nothing issue," said Ron Greenhalgh, chief engineer at NRECA.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 11, 1999.

bardou,

I would suspect the big guys would "island" their areas, as a contingency, before they'd let the little ones pull them down.

Frankly though, I just don't think we'll know who is "ready, willing and able" until we go through it in 2000. The other issue, that get's no recognition here or by NERC, but is clearly on Senator Bennett's mind... is the issue of intentional terrorism... of the utility kind.

That one makes me shudder... and stock up on more water and supplies.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 11, 1999.