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Technology Stocks : TAVA Technologies (TAVA-NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (24788)	11/12/1998 9:59:00 PM
From: RAVEL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 31646

Sounds like a TAVA client...Cowles quote.California Utility Companies Take Year 2000 Precautions 03:04:38, 12 November 1998 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By George Avalos, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 12--The Golden State's utilities are scrambling to make sure that the millennium bug won't dim the lights or foul up the phones on New Year's Day 2000. Many of the worries about the Year 2000 glitch have centered on the digital devastation that the malfunction could unleash on computers. But what about mundane, yet essential, services such as electricity and phone lines? After all, PCs and a number of other high-tech systems can't really do without power or communication links. For that reason, Pacific Gas & Electric and Pacific Bell have undertaken massive efforts to fix their Year 2000 problems. PG&E intends to spend $260 million through the end of next year. Pac Bell's parent, Texas-based SBC Communications Inc., has decided to spend $250 million during the same period; the Baby Bell didn't disclose the precise expenditures for California. These companies are upgrading their software, embedded microchips and other electronic systems to ensure they know what year it is when Jan. 1, 2000, arrives. Devices with the Year 2000 bug may confuse 2000 with 1900. Plenty is riding on Pac Bell's and PG&E's efforts. If they don't uncover and fix all of the glitches, electricity service could be disrupted. Some consultants such as Capers Jones of Software Productivity Research, which is helping repair Y2K failures, estimates that Y2K could trigger power failures and telephone outages that might last for a few days in several parts of the country. These companies not only have to fix the incorrect dates in the software, they also have to make sure they can track down the time errors inside gadgets that control a variety of equipment. In a nuclear plant, for example, computerized systems and embedded chips help operate reactor controls, turbines, electronic logs, security functions and systems to cool the reactor core. Fixing all of these systems may well prove a daunting task. PG&E has about 300,000 embedded chips that it potentially must investigate and analyze, said Kevin Seay, PG&E's Year 2000 program manager. That's on top of the 150 computer systems that the company deems critical to providing safe and reliable electricity. "Our approach was to go on the cautious side," Seay said. "If anything even smells like it has a chip in it, we put it on our inventory." So far, so good, according to PG&E. "Most of the embedded systems or components do not have Year 2000 problems," Seay said. In mid-September, the North America Electricity Reliability Council issued a report that stated the impact of the Y2K error on electric systems "appear to be less than first anticipated." NERC also said the nation's electric companies are proceeding aggressively to fix their problems in time for the date change. But some Year 2000 analysts are skeptical. Rick Cowles, a consultant with Tava R.W. Beck in Seattle, says there's little cause for optimism. Cowles says much more needs to be done. "The NERC report acknowledges that the pace of (electric) industry Y2K programs must be accelerated dramatically," Cowles wrote in an assessment that he released in September. Still, PG&E believes it will complete software upgrades by the end of this year and embedded system repairs sometime in early 1999. All fixes and tests on software and embedded chips should be complete by no later than next September. And the company is preparing a contingency plan should some bugs escape notice. Pac Bell officials figure the company should finish its upgrades by December. That would give the company nearly all of 1999 to conduct tests on the repairs, said Brian Posnanski, a spokesman for SBC. One of the advantages that Pac Bell has is the telephone network itself is like a computer, which can speed up repairs. Pac Bell has found embedded chips in a relatively small percentage of its telephone switches. "We have been upgrading the telephone system from the beginning, ever since it had electro-mechanical switches," Posnanski said. "It's really a software fix." ----- Visit HotCoco, the World Wide Web site of the Contra Costa Times, at hotcoco.com (c) 1998, Contra Costa Times, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. PCG, SBC,