http://www.abqjournal.com/biz/1biz12-16-99.htm

Thursday, December 16, 1999

PNM Drills for Y2K

By Tom McGhee

Journal Staff Writer

Roger Flynn plans to open a bottle of sparkling apple juice, pour it into a plastic cup and celebrate when New Year's is over and the millennium bug is fading into memory.

But on Wednesday afternoon, Flynn, PNM executive vice president for gas and electric services, and a group of his employees were getting ready for the big day.

About 64 employees took part in a drill to test the utility's ability to spread news of problems to workers in power plants and other facilities.

It was, said PNM spokesman Don Brown, the equivalent of a stress test.

Status boards lined the walls of a converted conference room at the company's Alvarado Square headquarters. Laptops, PCs and telephones were scattered over makeshift tables. Personnel staffing the center were executives and operations managers.

The layout in the Emergency Operations Center was the same one the employees will find when they report to work on New Year's Eve.

Any problems that show up then will be for real.

But Wednesday was a day for playacting. Employees heard a calamitous string of tales that ranged from lines downed by ice to failure at the San Juan generating station near Farmington.

It's the center's job to coordinate work on a night when there is an outside chance that problems could surface.

PNM doesn't expect any serious trouble when the clock rolls into the new century. The company has spent over $20 million to replace chips and computer systems to prepare for the rollover.

Chances that the power system will collapse are small; and Brown said the company expects New Year's to be more or less the same as any other day, subject to weather and only normal problems.

But "this is the Boy Scout thing, be prepared," said Flynn.

The center will be open at 8 p.m. on Dec. 31 and remain open until it is clear that PNM's electric production and electric and gas delivery systems are stable.

Wednesday's was the third and last drill at the center before New Year's.

"We're getting good at it," said Flynn.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@AOL.COM), December 16, 1999

Answers

They better get #4 on-line at the San Juan station soon... You notice they said NOTHING about that... Liars... I don't trust em'.

snoozin'...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), December 16, 1999.