'The below are excerpts from key writeups on today's US Senate hearing
on the Power Grid and Y2K. Both the leading Democrat and leading
Republican on the Committee are equally projecting severe risks that
are almost certain to occur.
Roleigh Martin
ourworld.compuserve.com
======================================================================
infobeat.com
02:31 PM ET 06/12/98
Senators call for power grid millennium safeguards
By Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Utilities must work harder and faster
to ward off the blackouts and glitches that appear virtually
inevitable because of millennium computer bugs, a Senate panel
warned the industry on Friday.
''Quite honestly, I think we're no longer at the point of
asking whether or not there will be any power disruptions, but
we are now forced to ask how severe the disruptions are going to
be,'' Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said.
A special Senate panel on potential Year 2000 computer and
microchip meltdowns focused its first hearing on electric
utilities because, Dodd said, ''If we don't have power to
generate electricity, everything else is moot.''
With 567 days to the next century, senators said prospects
are slim of fixing the power grid's hundreds of millions of
chips, microprocessors, computer programs and other technologies
that will be stumped by the digits 00.
Committee Chairman Robert Bennett said a survey his office
sent to 10 of the nation's largest electric, oil and gas
utilities showed their preparations to ward off year 2000 bugs
were lagging.
''I had anticipated that I would be able to provide a
positive report on the Year 2000 status of these public
utilities. Instead, based on the results of this survey, I am
genuinely concerned about the very real prospects of power
shortages as a consequence of the millennial date change,'' the
Utah Republican said.
Only two of the 10 utilities had finished an assessment of
their automated systems, which is an early step in the
preparation process, Bennett said. ''One firm did not even know
how many lines of computer code it had,'' he said, and none had
completed a Year 2000 contingency plan.
The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
which oversees much of the nation's power grid and natural gas
pipeline system, said the agency lacks authority to force
utilities to make preparations, or to report on their efforts.
''The state of Year 2000 readiness of the utility industry
is largely unknown,'' FERC chair James Hoecker said.
[snip]
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startext.net
Updated: Thursday, Jun. 11, 1998 at 21:20 CDT
'Y2K' bug may lead to brownouts
By Robert A. Rankin
Knight-Ridder News Service
WASHINGTON -- America may suffer widespread power blackouts and
brownouts Jan. 1, 2000, because utilities may not have fixed their
computer systems to eliminate the year 2000 software bug, according to
a Senate report to be released today.
A special Senate committee will reveal results of a confidential
survey it took of 10 major U.S. electric, oil and gas utilities to
assess whether their computer systems will be menaced by the so-called
year 2000 problem.
"The pace of remedial efforts is too slow," concludes an executive
summary of the survey results obtained by the Knight Ridder media
group. "There is significant cause for concern."
The survey reveals that utility executives remain uncertain about how
extensive the computer problem is within their plants, most have not
yet begun to fix their systems and they are ignorant of how much the
problem may menace their most crucial suppliers, vendors and
servicers.
"I think there is a virtual certainty that we'll have brownouts and
some regional blackouts," Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, chairman of the
special Senate Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, said in
an interview.
"We still have 18 months, and nobody really knows. So there is a very
slim possibility that everything will work just fine. I think the
chances of regional blackouts and heavy brownout activity throughout
the grid are about 80 percent," said Bennett, who has been examining
the year 2000 threat for a year.
[snip]
-___
From: Roleigh Martin <Roleigh.Martin-1@tc.umn.edu> Save Address Block Sender
Subject: Chances of regional blackouts and heavy brownout activity about 80%
- Sen. Bennett Says, Dodd joins
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