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[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only] MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1999 PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO - Will there be light?

Power companies say they're 'Y2K ready,' not 'compliant'

By Stephan Archer Electric company public relations departments nationwide are sounding confident and upbeat regarding the prospects of uninterrupted power at year's end, but many fears and uncertainties about their ability to deliver electricity remain just beneath the surface.

"We're not anticipating any problems," said Gil Francis of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public utility in the country. "We think power will be distributed as it always is."

"We anticipate it to be a normal New Year's Eve -- nothing out of the ordinary," echoed Alan Bunnell of Arizona Public Service. "We're well prepared for Y2K. We've invested well over five million dollars to ensure that all of our computers and technologies are Y2K ready."

Y2K ready? What happened to "Y2K compliant?"

"Most people won't (say Y2K compliant) because legal departments won't let them," confided Bunnell. "We use Y2K ready."

There is a big difference between the two terms. Bill Swank, a spokesman for Florida Power and Light, explained that "Y2K ready" means that "mission-critical" systems essential to the uninterrupted flow of electricity are ready for the date rollover. "Y2K compliant" means that everything, including non-critical systems, has been fixed.

"What we're saying is, there may be some pieces of equipment (that fail) that have absolutely no bearing," said Swank, who assured WorldNetDaily his company was "Y2K ready."

"For example, fax machines that have a date stamped on them may or may not be converted. We're not worried about those. It doesn't impact in any way how our utilities system operates and the reliability of it. That's the difference between being Y2K ready and Y2K compliant."

Perhaps paradoxically, while voicing confidence that nary a flicker will occur in their customers' homes and businesses, some utilities are advising customers to prepare for a disaster. One such company is the "Y2K ready" Pacific Gas and Electric, one of the nation's biggest private utility companies, serving a large portion of California.

"While we do not expect service interruptions, any number of factors on any given day could disrupt electric service somewhere in our extensive service area," says PG&E's website. "For that reason, we encourage you to treat Y2K like any other potential emergency such as an earthquake or severe storm. Consider your own needs and plans in case anything you count on might be affected by Y2K."

Commenting on her company's own advice, Jann Taber at PG&E said, "People should always be ready for any kind of emergency. We expect the rollover from 1999 to 2000 to be a day like any other day."

"What people don't understand is, power plant technology predates computers," said Francis. "Yes, computers are used. They're used as a tool, but people run the power plants, not computers, and we have ability to do things manually -- certainly to run these plants -- and we will do so if we have to. But we're not anticipating having to get to that point."

Since many people will be following the news from around the world as the date changes from 1999 to 2000, Commonwealth Edison in Chicago plans to double its normal New Year's Eve staff to 2,400 people, spokesman Jennifer Gordon told WorldNetDaily.

"We know we're going to be getting a high volume of calls throughout the day with CNN's reporting in a country that they've lost this or that," Gordon said. "We know people are going to panic. We've staffed up accordingly."

ComEdison will be monitoring events across the world throughout the day, Gordon added, to prepare for the surge of calls from concerned callers.

Though industry leaders say they are confident the lights will stay on Jan. 1, some Y2K consumer advocates and analysts are concerned that the entire scope of the problem is not being taken into consideration.

A major concern that threatens to derail the best efforts of utilities, and indeed, all organizations, to remediate their non-compliant systems is the problem of interconnectedness. Although individual power utilities may be Y2K ready, their ability to actually deliver power to customers could be adversely affected by neighboring utilities that are not compliant.

"Because all the utilities are interconnected into a grid itself, what happens is, one utility can potentially affect what occurs at another utility," admitted Bunnell.

Y2K consumer advocate Michael Hyatt, talking about the industry-wide Y2K tests that took place on April 9 and Sept. 9, expressed concern that neither drill consisted of an interconnected test of the power generation or distribution systems. Jim Lord, another prominent Y2K expert and author, shared Hyatt's concern.

"There has been no test of any electrical grid in the United States," said Lord. "There have been tests of individual components of the electrical grids, but there has been no systemic tests of any of the three electrical grids."

Even if individual power utilities are Y2K ready, said Hyatt, all are dependent on an infrastructure they don't control. For example, although they control the power, they do not control the phone lines.

"From my perspective, that's why it's impossible to predict an outcome," said Hyatt. "What that means is, Y2K is not about predicting the future. It's impossible. It's about risk management. We've got to treat this just like we treat every other kind of risk management situation. You can't buy a Y2K personal insurance policy, but that's why you need to prepare. You buy some of the stuff and prepare in the hopes that you don't have to use it."

Lord expressed additional concern that very little independent verification has been done of any electrical utility's Y2K remediation projects.

"Now that's standard engineering practice for large technology projects," said Lord. "It's called IV&V -- independent verification and validation. All large software projects, especially those that are critical to the public safety in some way, undergo IV&V. There has been very little of that done in the electrical utilities districts and their Y2K projects. Why?"

Lord spent two days with the CEO of one of the world's largest Y2K remediation companies, he told WorldNetDaily. WorldNetDaily. This company, Lord said, has performed Y2K remediation projects on many of the largest electrical utilities in the United States as well as overseas, and is also one of the nation's top two or three expert companies on embedded systems.

However, a statement by the firm's CEO, who wishes to remain anonymous, has chilling implications, Lord said.

The CEO said, "If we escape Y2K by only losing 40 to 60 percent of the electrical power in the entire United States for two to three weeks, I -would consider that a home run," according to Lord.

Nevertheless, most power utilities say they're ready for the millennium event. At least one utility, however, has actually admitted to possible problems.

"Officials with the Public Service Company of New Mexico have said they expect a 'high probability' that local electrical service will be cut off for a few hours on New Year's Day because of Y2K problems," said the Dec. 2 Albuquerque Journal. "They have not ruled out the chance of longer outages."

"But according to the Public Service Company of New Mexico's website, however, the company has attained -- that's right, "Y2K readiness."

Stating his concern about the power utilities' Y2K preparedness another way, Lord asked, "Would you get into an airplane and fly it if that airplane had never been flown before, and if the engineers told you, 'Well, we sat at our computers and we figured everything out and we think it's going to be OK, but we've never flown the plane'?"

That's the situation with the electrical grid," continued Lord. "It has never been tested. I would not get on that airplane. I would not do it." URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/19991213_xex_will_there_b.shtml

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-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 13, 1999

Answers

snip

"We're not anticipating any problems," said Gil Francis of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public utility in the country. "We think power will be distributed as it always is."

snip

Yeah, right, and Captain Smith wasn't anticipating running into an iceberg, either...

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), December 13, 1999.

This provides a great example of worldnetdaily's spin and lack of journalistic integrity...

From worldnetdaily - Nevertheless, most power utilities say they're ready for the millennium event. At least one utility, however, has actually admitted to possible problems.

"Officials with the Public Service Company of New Mexico have said they expect a 'high probability' that local electrical service will be cut off for a few hours on New Year's Day because of Y2K problems," said the Dec. 2 Albuquerque Journal. "They have not ruled out the chance of longer outages."

"But according to the Public Service Company of New Mexico's website, however, the company has attained -- that's right, "Y2K readiness."

From Year2000.com Announcement List

If you like worldnetdaily.com, you'll absolutely LOVE nationalenquirer.com

-- CD (not@here.com), December 13, 1999.

I have snipped, and (ADDED COMMENTARY). Please consider this

as a diversion, not a disruption. >>Snip

"What people don't understand is, power plant technology predates computers," said Francis. (SMILING, AT THE NODDING HORDES WATCHING THE NIGHTLY NEWS)

"Yes, computers are used. They're used as a tool, but people run the power plants, not computers, and we have ability to do things manually (HM..OH--BUT I DIGRESS)-- certainly to run these plants -- and we will do so if we have to. But we're not anticipating having to get to that point. (BECAUSE THAT WOULD SCARE THE HELL OUT OF ME.)"

Since many people will be following the news from around the world as the date changes from 1999 to 2000, Commonwealth Edison in Chicago plans to double its normal New Year's Eve staff to 2,400 people,(ONE THIRD THE SIZE IT USED TO USE WHEN WE RAN THE PLANT MANUALLY) spokesman Jennifer Gordon told WorldNetDaily.

"We know we're going to be getting a high volume of calls throughout the day with CNN's reporting in a country that they've lost this (PRESIDENT) or that (DICTATOR)," Gordon said. "We know people are going to panic. We've staffed up accordingly. (WE ARE PREPARED AS IF FOR A LONG WINTER STORM, OR A HOLIDAY WEEKEND)"

ComEdison will be monitoring events across the world throughout the day (DRINKING EGGNOG), Gordon added, to prepare for the surge of calls from concerned callers (WHO WANT TO BE LET IN--AT THE GATE ALREADY).

>>End Snip (AND COMMENTARY)

rw

-- rw (ridleywalker@aol.com), December 13, 1999.

This is what we call in the business, a non story.

-- Buster (BustrCollins@aol.com), December 13, 1999.

PG&E says that the rollover weekend will be no different than a normal weekend. They have 50 to 100 technicians on duty on a normal weekend. They plan on having 1100 on duty over New Years. To quote a regular poster... hmmmmmmm.

-- Fishy (Somethings@fish.y), December 13, 1999.

I tink that by May of next year almost everyone will be a polly. World Net Daily will probably be an exception.

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), December 13, 1999.

My car has a bumper. That makes it "car crash ready" My uncle has a heart condition, he has nitroglycerin. That makes him "heart attack ready". Commercial airplanes have seatbelts. That makes them "airplane crash ready".

However, if I'm in a bad wreck, I may still die. If my uncle has a bad heart attack, he may still die. If a plane crashes, everyone on board will likely die.

But if we have bad Y2K problems, don't worry, the world is after all "Y2K ready".

-- Ragnar (Ragnar@mingspring.com), December 14, 1999.

However, if I'm in a bad wreck, I may still die. If my uncle has a bad heart attack, he may still die. If a plane crashes, everyone on board will likely die.

But if we have bad Y2K problems, don't worry, the world is after all "Y2K ready".

Good point, Ragnar. If we have bad Y2K problems, we will likely die.

-- (think@about.it), December 14, 1999.

To balance the doom and gloom, there's the other side of the coin. My VCR is NOT COMPLIANT, but will work almost perfectly (given electricity, of course). I just have to set its year back to 1992. Not even ready, let alone compliant. But it'll still work!

Few company's lawyers allow them to claim they are compliant. It could turn a minor whoopsie into a billion-dollar lawsuit with no defense. As for what's really going to happen, we get to find out very soon, so there's no point discussing it any more.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), December 14, 1999.