Wednesday 29 December 1999

Service workers on call for Y2K
Utilities, police, hospitals have backup systems in place for 2000 rollover Dave Rogers
The Ottawa Citizen

Essential services workers say they are ready for the changeover to 2000, but most add they will be working on New Year's Eve and have prepared a backup system in case the Y2K bug bites.

The danger is that date-sensitive services linked to personal computers won't work because without hardware and software improvements, many computers will read Jan. 1, 2000 as Jan. 1, 1900.

Karl Kropp, Ottawa Hydro's general manager said the utility's power distribution equipment worked when it was tested for Y2K readiness months ago. But 30 to 40 people will be ready to operate the switches manually in case automatic switching fails.

"We can't guarantee what is going to happen with the power supply," Mr. Kropp said yesterday. "I keep telling people to watch what happens in Europe because the equipment they use is the same as ours.

"The New Year will arrive in Europe before it happens here. If the equipment works in Europe, it should work here."

Ted Gruetzner, a spokesman for Ontario Power Generation Inc., said the power supplier has been preparing for 2000 for the past 18 months and has been ready since Nov. 30.

"Our nuclear power stations at Pickering, Darlington and Bruce were checked and everything is fine," Mr. Gruetzner said. "No utility can guarantee service, but we believe everything will work. When we tested our computers we found that many didn't have any Y2K problems."

Danielle Beaulieu, a spokeswoman for Hydro-Quebec, said the province's power grid passed all Y2K reliability tests in April and September. The tests, conducted in co-operation with the North American Electricity Reliability Council were designed to show how effectively the utility would use staff and backup voice communications during the transition.

"We have a contingency plan even though the risk of a power failure is low," Ms. Beaulieu said. "We will have 1,500 people on duty on the 31st instead of the usual 300.

"We will be checking to see what happens in New Zealand and Australia early in the morning of Dec. 31. The power utilities in those countries will be the first to experience the turn of the millennium. Everybody is waiting to see what happens there."

Bell Canada spokesman Don Hogarth said the company has spent $350 million on Y2K preparedness and programmers have rewritten 83 million lines of computer code so telephones will work Jan. 1.

But 1,500 Bell employees will be working around the clock in Ontario and Quebec between Dec. 31 and Jan. 5 in case anything goes wrong.

Greg Geddes, director of Ottawa-Carleton's year 2000 project, said the region will have 1,600 employees on duty New Year's Eve, including 600 police officers, 500 regional staff and 500 OC Transpo workers. There will be free bus service from 9 a.m. Dec. 31 to 6 a.m. Jan. 1.

Tests have shown that the region's water system is year 2000 ready, but workers will be on duty to operate the water filtration system manually in case of a power failure.

All police leave has been cancelled until mid-January. Mr. Geddes said plain clothes officers have been issued with uniforms and unmarked cars will be equipped with warning lights.

"The RCMP will join regional police on Parliament Hill and there will be a lot of officers on foot or in cars for the millennium celebrations," Mr. Geddes said. "This will be like the biggest Canada Day ever.

"The region will operate an Emergency Measures centre at regional headquarters and the police will have their own Y2K centre at police headquarters on Elgin Street."

Anyone who has questions about hospitals, ambulances, fire, hydro water and other essential services on New Year's Eve can call the regional operations centre at 560-1335.

Geoff Matthews, a spokesman for the Royal Bank, said the bank has been working on the Y2K problem for five years. ,p> "We have done checks on all our systems during the last six months and we aren't expecting any problems," Mr. Matthews said. "The bank has worked closely with the electric utilities and telecommunications companies to make sure everything will work.

"Branches will close on Dec. 31 at 3 or 4 p.m. and reopen on Jan. 5 in Quebec and Jan. 4 in the rest of Canada. During that time people will be able to use their credit cards, debit cards, bank machines, telephone and computer banking."

The Ottawa Hospital has tested 11,526 medical devices for Y2K readiness. Eighty-five per cent of the equipment wasn't date sensitive. Of the remaining 15 per cent, only three per cent weren't Y2K compliant and needed to be fixed. All date sensitive equipment was tested after the repairs were completed.

The hospital has contingency plans for a power failure, loss of water, no fuel, loss of medical gasses and Y2K failure for particular devices.

St. John Ambulance will have three mobile units and 47 volunteers on duty or on call from noon Dec. 31 to noon Jan 1 to assist regular ambulance crews.

Despite assurances that there really is no Y2K problem, many Ottawa-area consumers are quietly stocking up on survival supplies and equipment.

Chris Bloch-Hansen, manager of the Trailhead store on Scott Street said the most popular items are flashlights, batteries, candles, camping stoves and fuel.

"We had a windup radio that didn't require batteries, but sold out a couple of weeks ago," Mr. Bloch-Hansen said. "We are encouraging customers to approach the millennium in a sensible way, but some people are even buying sleeping bags.

"A lot of people are buying water purifiers in case the water system is corrupted. Most people say they are buying dried food at the supermarkets. My son and I went to our camping cupboard and pulled out our stuff because that is all we need."

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), December 30, 1999

Answers

Danielle Beaulieu, a spokeswoman for Hydro-Quebec, said the province's power grid passed all Y2K reliability tests in April and September. The tests, conducted in co-operation with the North American Electricity Reliability Council were designed to show how effectively the utility would use staff and backup voice communications during the transition.

OK, let me get this straight. The spokeswoman for Hydro-Quebec said Quebec's power grid passed all NERC Y2K reliability tests. But the next sentence tells us that these tests were ONLY "designed to show how effectively the utility would use staff and backup voice communications during the transition."

So what testing assurance does Hydro-Quebec have that enables this spokeswoman to say that they won't have Y2K problems? The fact that they were able to use walkie-talkies successfully during the NERC test?

May God have mercy on those in Quebec (and on us all)!!!

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), December 30, 1999.

"If the equipment works in Europe, it should work here.

Hey! What more assurance do you need?

We've all misjudged the NERC. Those other things were drills; Europe is the test:)...!

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), December 30, 1999.