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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 (35)	7/25/1998 8:05:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89

'Some believe that there is a power station problem asked in the TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) Q&A Forum This is another article out of my book 'The Year 2000 Millennium Bug Report' this guy believes that power stations are indeed at risk. Timothy Wilbur Source: Year 2000 Discussion List, John Catterall, Year 2000 Project Manager - Western Power, in response to a Los Angeles Times article from 3/11/1997 From; jcatterall@ccmail.wpcorp.com.au Automated systems are indeed widespread throughout power utilities. Exposure to the industry would in my opinion rate as extreme. At Western Power, our IT compliance project (cost around $3 million and employing 35 full time employees) is trivial in comparison to the issues we face on the control and embedded system front. Just leaving aside the problems associated with ensuring supply of such items as fuel, from the weighbridge and conveyor systems through to intelligent metering and meter reading systems dates are endemic. Many of the control systems represented in power systems have dates associated with them. These could be reclosers, Voltage regulators, Governors, PLCs etc. The list is endless. You then have a swathe of actual 'applications' involved in the delivery of electricity such as your Distributed Control System and your SCADA (System Control and DATA 'eg dates' Acquisition) systems, all of which have dates associated with them. Much of what happens throughout the process of generating and delivering electricity is 'DATE AND TIME STAMPED'. A typical DCS at a power station will have many thousands of processors associated with it. Anyone prepared to give me a guarantee that my DCS won't experience a date problem?? (I can't even get the manufacturer to give me this). Anyone prepared to run a power station, when the DCS is throwing alarms up at you that indicates it's getting no readings or a peculiar reading either from a device it is monitoring or one of its front end processors?? However, this represents just a portion of your problems. You will also need to address your security systems, your alarm systems (fire, temperature, etc,) your wastewater, your emissions etc. How do you monitor these and what control systems do you have in place? After all, your management must know how much and over what time period things are occurring. Your employee protection systems - would your power station staff be happy running your power station for you when they know if they hit a panic button nothing is likely to happen. Any suggestion that power systems don't use dates or could not be affected by the Year 2000 problem is at best ill informed. John Catterall, Western Power - Year 2000 Project Manager (Note: these represent my views only and do not necessarily represent the views of my company) Asked by Timothy J Wilbur (timkaz@nor.com.au) on July 24, 1998. Contribute an answer to "Some believe that there is a power station problem" greenspun.com

To: John Mansfield who wrote (35)	7/27/1998 12:08:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89

BBC : 'Embedded systems In the case of air traffic control it is easy to identify which computers are involved, and then set to work re-coding the date systems to introduce them to the idea of a new millennium. Unfortunately that is not always the case. Computer chips have found their way into everything from cars to kettles. Modern buildings are crammed with built-in processors (called embedded systems) that control lifts, lighting, heating, sprinklers, and security. Much heavy machinery is reliant on chips that monitor and control activity, and keep tabs on when the machine is due for maintenance. In many cases, for safety reasons, those chips will shut down any machinery in the case of anything unusual. Chips in embedded systems are usually venerable classics of computing. On the desktop we may demand the latest and fastest, but in embedded systems, where simplicity and reliability is more important than speed, tried and trusted technology wins out every time. Most satellites, and the Mars Pathfinder, are using a Z-80 chip originally sold in the '70s and virtually identical to that used in the first Sinclair home computers. They're cheap, they have a proven track record, and the tools for programming them are widely available. The humble 286 processor that powered PCs back in the late '80s is now to be found in many plumbing, and air conditioning systems, watching over the flow of fluids and the operation of valves. The problem is that these chips, and the software running on them, are not usually aware of the year 2000. As the party hits its peak, a lot of heating and lighting systems will simultaneously take a huge step back in time. What happens varies from one case to the next. Where the operation of the machine is not date dependent, they will simply carry on. Where they are day dependent, such as offices that switch off the lights at weekends, they will be out of synch. But where they control dates for safety there may be more serious problems. Many will be confused, and will shut down automatically. An embedded systems consultant for the Cara Corporation was recently asked to brief US congressmen on the issue, he had little comfort to offer. "Every test I have seen done on an electrical power plant has caused it to shut down. Period. I know of no plant or facility investigated to this date that has passed without Y2K problems," he said. Whilst you might want to have some candles ready at that party, it should be remembered that the electricity companies are aware of the problem, and working on averting it. The danger lies not so much in the spectacular (and thereby obvious) sources for failure, but in the ones we overlook. Embedded systems watch over the danger thresholds in nuclear power plants, they keep life support systems ticking over in hospitals, they change the traffic lights from red to green, they keep production lines rolling. All of those systems must be made Y2K compliant, either by updating them, or by replacing them. While work is underway with most of the critical ones, where life truly depends on them, the scale of the problem means that some embedded systems will not be updated on time, and a certain amount of disruption seems inevitable. bbc.co.uk

To: John Mansfield who wrote (35)	7/27/1998 1:37:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 89

'Power Supply in NZ? asked in the TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) Q&A Forum Here is some interesting hard information on the power supply issue, from NZ, but it applies generally in the West. It takes the form of a Q & A session, questions from myself answers from: Brian Donnelly Year 2000 Programme Manager Electricity Corporation of New Zealand (ECNZ) P.O. Box 930, Wellington New Zealand This is the best "official" response I've got so far on the issue Friday, 24 July 1998 12:45 To: Y2K Program Office Subject: Y2k and the Power Supply Like many people in IT (business computing), I have worked on application software for business systems I am therefore quite aware of the associated y2k issues. What is a complete mystery to me is the possible y2k problem of embedded controls systems/chips on equipment used to generate/distribute the power supply. As the prospect of power cuts would have greater immediate visible repercussions than the effect of business software failure or malfunction, I would be pleased if you could provide clear answers to a few questions. Do you really think there is any risk of embedded control systems failing thereby causing the associated machines to malfunction or stop as a result of an internal date/time clock moving to 2000. [Brian Donnelly] Yes, there is. So far we have found several problems primarily in the control & monitoring systems, which if left unchecked would leave the control network unable to respond to system events or failures. Actual embedded systems are not in themselves a large risk, in general (if equipped with a clock) will simply roll over to /00, the risk is in the control software recognising how to interpret this. Are power control systems internationally (at least in the non-ex-communist world) fairly similar in design, ie would we expect the same sort of outcome in 2000 all over the world, whatever that might be. Is the concern about the power supply completely misplaced. [Brian Donnelly] To my knowledge, power systems in UK / N America / Australia / NZ / and parts of Asia, are all fairly similar (I think this probably extends world-wide, but on that I cannot comment) in nature and deployment. I don't think concern is misplaced. I am aware of a number of industry problems world wide which are similar in nature. Fortunately, the industry is fairly well prepared for handling system failures as electrical generation and distribution is a volitile business subject to frequent "corrections". I think that most people would find it hard to believe that there would be a likelihood of y2k power cuts. If there were a risk it is also likely that any bad news would be suppressed to prevent panic. [Brian Donnelly] I think there are a number of "watchdog" agencies out there depending on the country in question, so I don't think the problems (or potential) would be covered up. When I'm asked if the lights will go out, my typical reply is "that they may not go out... but I'd expect them to flicker". The reason why I think there will be problems is because: (a) I don't think it is possible to identify all embedded components (we operate 29 power stations of both thermal and hydro variety with ages ranging from 10 to 80 years old); (b) the supply chain though not long, is complex (i.e. fuel supplier to generator to grid/grid operator to distributor/retailer) with failures at any level creating potential for wider spread of failure. Why I don't think the problems will be catasprophic is because: (a) the diversity of the generation capability (i.e. it is unlikely that a single problem will affect all stations, Y2K included); (b) there is a current state of over supply (i.e. generation capability exceeding demand by in excess of 10 % and rising); (c) control system across the supply chain are similar or in some cases identical; (d) the level of Y2K awareness in the industry; (e) the sharing of Y2K information across the industry. > Asked by Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk) on July 27, 1998. Contribute an answer to "Power Supply in NZ?" greenspun.com