http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/6968

-- lyndie (lyndie32@hotmail.com), December 07, 1999

Answers

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/business/1205y2k1.shtml

-- lyndie (lyndie32@hotmail.com), December 07, 1999.

Lyndie's article:

Readiness of PSC's aging power plants worries former head of compliance team

By Jerd Smith Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

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The former director of Y2K compliance at Public Service Company of Colorado says the state's largest utility might not have gone far enough in preparing for 2000.

Will James, a member of the Governor's Task Force on Year 2000 Readiness, said he is concerned the utility's aging power plants have not been as carefully prepped for the transition to 2000 as they should have been because the utility didn't want to spend extra money to do the work James thought was necessary.

James also blames the state for failing to fund an independent Y2K audit and verification program for Colorado's utilities.

"Without a state-sponsored independent audit and detailed examination of the readiness of these organizations," James wrote in a report to the task force last month, "a guarantee of Y2K readiness in the energy sector cannot be made to the citizens of Colorado at this time."

But Public Service, the governor's task force and the Colorado Utilities Commission have said the utility is well-prepared for Y2K. Public Service said it has spent nearly three years and $25 million on its Y2K compliance program. Recently it hired an independent audit firm to review its Y2K plans and that firm gave the utility high marks.

"I may be all wet on this," said James, who worked for Public Service from 1995 to 1999. He left the utility voluntarily, in part because he thought it wasn't going far enough to address Y2K issues. The utility agrees that James left voluntarily, but disagrees with his assessment of Public Service's Y2K readiness plans.

"Everything may be just fine Dec. 31," James said. "But if things do go wrong, I think people should know what happened. We (the governor's task force) tried to do the right thing for the families and businesses of Colorado. But what started out as an 'all-for-one' type of approach has ended as an every man and industry for himself situation."

James' concerns about Public Service's status center on the company's power plants, which serve 70 percent of Coloradans. Public Service already as set clocks ahead at its largest power plants so they are running as if it were 2000 now. They believe this program will make the Dec. 31 transition a non-event.

But James, who now runs his own Y2K consulting firm, is concerned because not all systems in the plants are capable of running in "future time." Although testing has been done on individual parts of power plants and those parts are now Y2K compliant, James said more system-wide testing is needed.

If problems occur, they could be compounded because Public Service has downsized and doesn't have enough skilled workers to cope with a crisis, James said.

Bob Ray, who now directs Public Service's Y2K program, said the concerns are unwarranted and that the utility has done everything possible to prepare for Y2K.

"What Will is saying is that it would have been nice if we could have done those things," Ray said. "It would be nice if we could run every piece of equipment in the power plants in (future time), but cost- wise it is prohibitive. And from a necessity standpoint, it is not necessary."

Ray said the utility has worked hard to identify all the critical systems and to test them for Y2K readiness. Doing the kind of inventory and testing program James advocated easily could have cost several million dollars more.

"No, we probably haven't found every embedded chip," Ray said. "But that's why we will have 300 extra people in the field that night. If we find something that we missed, we will be able to run it manually. ... We've never set a 100 percent guarantee that everything will be fine. But we're 99.9 percent of the way there."

But Public Service isn't the only concern, James said. He worries that budget cuts might have kept the state's Y2K task force from doing its best to prepare for 2000.

The state's Y2K task force was founded by Gov. Roy Romer in July 1998. James served as co-chairman of that group and remained on the task force after Gov. Bill Owens' administration took over its leadership in January.

The task force asked for $1.5 million last year to pay for an independent Y2K audit program. But ultimately, neither Owens nor the General Assembly came up with the money. Without that money, the state has had to rely on unverified self-reporting by critical companies such as Public Service and US West.

Two weeks ago, the state task force announced that all key industry sectors and state agencies were Y2K ready.

But in a Y2K task force report dated Nov. 11, James wrote "this report is not an independent verification and validation of actual readiness. ... This readiness evaluation is based on the assurances provided by the industry trade organizations, regulators, and the corporations themselves."

Despite James' concerns, other task force members said they're confident the lights will stay on and the phones will work on Jan. 1.

Rick Grice, co-chairman of the state task force, said the state lacked legal authority to audit private industry. He also said it wasn't necessary because private industry cooperated with his group's requests for information.

"Everybody always wants to do a better job and wants more money to do it. ... But everyone, particularly the big players like US West and Public Service, was completely forthcoming. ... Early on, some of the people didn't want to play ball, but the governor and the task force got on the phone and convinced them that it was in their best interest to work with us (the task force)."

But James remains concerned. One problem, he says, is few federal or state agencies, outside of the banking industry, are doing independent verifications.

James said power and phone companies should have been audited by independent teams, just as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency audited banks.

"Nearly everyone else has relied on self-reporting," James said.

The Department of Energy did some independent audits randomly, looking at roughly 60 percent of utilities nationwide. When Public Service realized it wasn't included in the DOE's audits, it hired an independent audit firm.

Y2K experts say everyone should have some kind of independent audit of their Y2K program, as Public Service did. But they add there are few experts when it comes to determining where to start and where to end Y2K testing because systems are so deeply intertwined.

"Nobody knows what's too little and what's too much," said Scott Lutz, senior vice president of Englewood-based RSA, a business consulting firm that does Y2K testing.

Lutz said states in general have done less than private industry in preparing for Y2K.

"But it doesn't seem that $1.5 million for an audit is that much money," he said of the task force's request. "Businesses everywhere are spending millions. But there is no 100 percent answer in this thing. And the liability companies face is huge."

Another Y2K pro, Ken Stafford, vice chancellor for information technology at the University of Denver, says independent audits don't always catch the things they need to catch.

"What we do know," Stafford said, "is that companies that didn't do enough to prepare for Y2K won't be in business 12 months from now."

James hopes Dec. 31 arrives and departs smoothly, with no interruptions in electric or phone service. He also is urging everyone he knows to have enough batteries, food and water on hand to last 72 hours.

"If the wheels come off the system, we will have done a real disservice to the people of Colorado," James said.

December 5, 1999

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 07, 1999.

Gawd!! WIth less than a month to go, the happy-happy spin about Y2K readiness is starting to crack more and more. Will the public notice? Will the public care?? Stay tuned....

www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/6967

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), December 07, 1999.

It seems the blame game is beginning...---...

-- Les (yoyo@tolate.com), December 07, 1999.

lyndie, you should repost this with the thread title reflecting the situation: "Colorado power iffy" or some such and categorize it under Utilities.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), December 07, 1999.

Does anyone know where the thread is for "Bunker in Golden Colorado"? (sorry, that's as close as I can remember)

That thread has an interesting tie in to this.

-- maid upname (noid@ihope.com), December 07, 1999.

I reposted the CO bunker thread at New Questions.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), December 07, 1999.

Another one? Did you notice this, posted yesterday?:

GPU is not sure of their Y2K status

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999.

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

Already a thread started on this.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), December 07, 1999.

Oh no, not another Y2K Pro !!!

Another Y2K pro, Ken Stafford, vice chancellor for information technology at the University of Denver

-- Lurker (eye@spy.net), December 07, 1999.