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To: WR who wrote (20515)	7/13/1998 3:43:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 31646

'Utility companies scramble to keep Y2K computer bug at bay By JANE E. ALLEN AP Science Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California's computer-driven utility industry is scrambling to keep the millennium bug at bay so that at the stroke of midnight, Jan. 1, 2000, your New Year's Eve party won't be plunged into cold, dark silence. Still, there are no guarantees that heat, lights and telephones will continue uninterrupted, says John Greer, the Year 2000 program manager for Pacific Gas & Electric in San Francisco, one of the state's largest utilities. "Nobody can say there will be absolutely no problems. There are no absolutes in this game," said Greer, whose company serves 4.5 million electric customers and 3.5 million gas customers in the northern two-thirds of the state. "Everybody is taking it seriously, and keeping in mind the goal: keeping the lights on and keeping the gas flowing," he said. Greer, a computer and telecommunications services manager, devotes up to 75 percent of his time rooting out the electronic crannies where a hidden computer glitch could trip up service. The Year 2000 or Y2K problem is a worldwide threat because many computers were programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year. They may read 2000 as 1900, since computer codes represent both as 00. Some experts have warned that in the first minutes of the new millennium, computers will think it's 1900 and shut down. Banking systems could fail, air traffic controls could stop working and utilities could come to a halt. There are more subtle problems, too, that often require turning to manufacturers for a fix. So-called embedded microprocessors or embedded chips keep an internal clock running on such devices as elevators, electric doors, air conditioning systems, medical monitoring equipment, date-stamping fax machines and nuclear power plants. Unless swapped out or readjusted, those, too, could fail. ... sacbee.com