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Technology Stocks : Year 2000 (Y2K) Embedded Systems and Utilities -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (33)	7/24/1998 6:38:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89

'Deregulation and Y2k asked in the Electric Utilities and Y2K Q&A Forum This question is for Rick Cowles. By the way how are you enjoying your new relationship with TAVA/R.W. Beck. I saw the good news about Africa, congrats. OK, here is the question. I read an article (http://www.pilotonline.com/business/bz0713eyk.html) on Y2k and in it a representative of Virginia Power was discussing the Y2k issue. They mentioned that they have been working on the problem for some time and expect to spend '$100 to $150 million' on the problem, but they also say they expect to spend half that if the sale of East Midlands Electric goes through. What concerns me is that this statement says that if a utility sells (or plans on selling) a generation plant (or any other division) between now and 2000 they will not worry about Y2k for that plant. I have attended several presentations by a large utility and when questioned about this we got the usuall sidestep answer (these guys are as slippery as politians). With deregulation of the industry there is alot of jockying to get out of the generaton business by most large utilities, is this an area were something can and/or will fall through the cracks? Also, in your testamonies and contacts in the industry has this topic been addressed? Thanks in advance and happy bug hunting. Asked by M. Perelstein (mperels@ms.com) on July 23, 1998. Answers I wrote a Westergaard column back in December of 1997 regarding this topic. You can find it at: Fire Sales - Avoiding the Y2k Problem Thanks for the TAVA/R.W. Beck good wishes - it's been a very interesting experience, and promises to get even more interesting in the next few months. Answered by Rick Cowles (rcowles@waterw.com) on July 24, 1998. Contribute an answer to "Deregulation and Y2k" rcowles@waterw.com greenspun.com

To: John Mansfield who wrote (33)	7/24/1998 6:40:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89

July 13, 1998 Could be some reason for concern on utilities' Y2K readiness BY AKWELI PARKER, The Virginian-Pilot Copyright 1998, Landmark Communications Inc. As far-reaching as the effects of the Year 2000 computer problem promise to be, perhaps none is as chilling as its potential to affect the electric power grid. ''I would hope that the major industries are OK, like the phone system and the power system,'' said Godfrey Grier, of Virginia Beach-based Metro Information Systems. ''Because without power, things come to a halt pretty quick.'' It could be a screeching halt, according to testimony at a recent Senate Special Committee hearing on the Year 2000 problem. Although individual electric utilities have been addressing the problem as early as 1995, no industrywide assessment has been made and no state-of-readiness measure is available, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry think tank. A non-scientific Senate staff survey of the 10 largest U.S. electric, oil and natural gas utilities uncovered some disturbing facts: Only 20 percent of the firms had fully assessed their automated systems. One firm did not know how many lines of computer code it had. None of the companies had been assured that its vendors and service providers would meet the inflexible deadline of Jan. 1, 2000. None of the firms had finished back-up plans for Year 2000-related failures, even though they're required by regulators to keep emergency-response plans. For utilities, there are two species of the Year 2000 bug: software-related programming bugs and ''embedded'' bugs. The latter are particularly nettlesome because they reside in the chips that contain computers' hardwired operating instructions. Embedded systems, which run many of the ''mission critical'' components of power plants, are such a big worry for utilities that the Electric Power Research Institute set up an information-sharing program devoted to that concern. Embedded systems are found in load dispatch computers, nuclear power plant safety systems and fossil plant boiler control systems, to name a few places. ... pilotonline.com