MORE about NERC April 9th nationwide "Y2K Drill"
North American Electric Reliability Council & electric industry in North America will conduct a Y2K drill on April 9,1999. The purpose of the drill is to prepare for operation with limited voice and data communications ...
From NERC documents ...
THE APRIL 9 DRILL IS INTENDED TO INSTILL PUBLIC CONFIDENCE THRU SUCCESS and at the same time be a real test of our ability to operate ...
DO NOT MAKE THE DRILL TOO COMPLEX. We want to have a successful and meaningful story for publication ... The drill should test partial loss of voice and data communications and partial loss of EMS functionality...
ftp://www.nerc.com/pub/sys/all_updl/docs/y2k/drill-preparation-strategies.pdf
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Look at this quote [from NERC document]:
"All identified exceptions will be held in strict confidence and will NOT be reported to DOE [Department of Energy] or the public."
And this comment:
"In 'y2k-reporting-changes-1-12-99.pdf' ... NERC states that utilities attempting to conform, but which will miss the due dates because of 'readiness exceptions' will be allowed to report their mission-critical systems as 'Y2K READY'."
greenspun.com
MAKES ME QUESTION THIS ...
According to the data presented by NERC, more than half the utilities participating have completed testing their systems for Y2K related problems, and remediating problems that did occur ... "The report presented to D.O.E. finds that only a small percentage of equipment tested showed operational problems related to the Y2K glitch."
usembassy-amman.org.jo
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This is NOT a test. This is a DRILL [Apr 9]. It is a TRAINING EXERCISE.
It has nothing to do with making or testing y2k fixes. The purpose of this DRILL is to practice responses to degradation in the backup communications system. It's so everyone will no where to be and what to do in case of actual communications problems at rollover.
Has anyone here ever gone through a school fire drill? Was there a real fire? Were they testing how fire-resistent the facilities were? Come on, everyone knew there wasn't any fire. We were supposed to learn what to do so we'd be prepared in case of a real fire. The NERC drill is exactly the same thing.
You don't pass or fail a DRILL! If power should have problems for some reason related to the selected dates (all those 9's), those problems will have NOTHING TO DO with the drill taking place on those same dates.
-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), March 14, 1999.
greenspun.com
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WHY ARE UTILITIES & NATIONAL GUARD CONDUCTING NATIONWIDE DRILLS TO PREPARE FOR "OPERATION WITH LIMITED VOICE & DATA COMMUNICATIONS"???
NUMBER PLEASE? From Jim Lord's Newsletter
Many don't realize how the electrical system is TOTALLY DEPENDENT on the telephone system. The three electrical grids (Eastern, Western and Texan) are monitored and controlled by a network of com puters controlled by a network of computers connected together by the phone system.
No phones - no grid. The reverse is also true, no electricity - no phones. A large-scale failure in either will produce a serious failure in both.
Here's a statement from the NERC report: "Electrical power systems are highly dependent on microwave, telephone, VHF Radio, and satellite communications. If the control centers are the "brains" of the electrical grids, communications systems are the "nervous system." ... One large electric utility may use as many as 40 to 50 telephone companies in several states."
Telecommunications is the ACHILLES HEEL of the electrical grid. Unfortunately, the electrical industry can't even test this critical component. It is no longer technically possible to do so. There isn't enough time. There aren't enough people. The engineers don't have the training. There's not enough equipment. There's no test plan. It simply can't be done.
From the NERC report, "(It) ... will not be practical to perform extensive integrated testing with external voice and data communications service providers ... (Telephone) service providers ... cannot provide live circuits for end-to-end testing."
Cheryl :-(
OH WHAT A WICKED WEB WE WEAVE ...
FYI - Power Grids to be tested nationwide on 9/9/99. "On Sept. 8 and 9, the entire North American electrical system will operate as if it were running in the year 2000." (TheStreet.com)
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