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To: Captain Jack who wrote (30190)	4/8/1999 9:25:00 PM
From: RAVEL	Respond to of 31646

See reference from Rick Cowles....is this the same Rick we all know???? I'm confused. May be just a coincidence. RAVEL Expert Finds Utilities' Key Systems Prepared for Year 2000 03:40:39, 03 April 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Richard Burnett, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Apr. 1--Look for billing glitches, not power outages, to become the most likely spawn of the Y2K computer problem, a top electric utility computer expert said Wednesday at a conference in Orlando. The nation's utilities have made major strides to keep the lights burning uninterrupted "well into the next millennium," said Jon C. Arnold, chief technology officer for Edison Electric Institute, the industry's largest trade group. "A couple of years ago, we didn't have a lot of good information from the utilities about Y2K," he said. "But this year, we see a world of difference. Based on what they're telling me now, it looks like Y2K will be a nonevent." But like other industries, utilities face a greater challenge getting all their business computers ready for the date change, he said. "There will be some glitches in accounting and some erroneous bills generated," Arnold said. "But much of it will be fixed without anyone ever knowing about it." Arnold's comments came at the institute's annual industry workshop, which ended Wednesday. The event attracted several hundred utility industry officials from across the country. Five years ago, the Edison group began studying Y2K, the decades-old programming flaw that causes many computers to mistake the year 2000 as 1900. The institute has worked with most of the nation's 3,000-plus utilities, gathering periodic reports, helping develop Y2K solutions and preparing contingency plans, Arnold said. It also works with the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. More than two-thirds of the nation's electrical power infrastructure has been tested, he said. The industry has a deadline of May 31 to be finished with the effort, and contingency plans are supposed to be in place a month later, Arnold said. In February, Florida Power & Light Co., the state's largest utility, said 80 percent of its system was Y2K-ready. Florida Power Corp. and Orlando Utilities Commission reported a 60 percent completion rate. FPL and OUC expect to meet the June deadline. Florida Power has set its finish line for September because one or two plants will be tested during routine maintenance in the early fall. Almost 100 percent of the electric utilities, Arnold said, have participated in the industry-wide Y2K project, led by the North American Electric Reliability Council, the Electric Power Research Institute and the Edison trade group. Independent consultants said the project deserves credit for making dramatic progress since last year. But it is too early to be complacent, they said. "It is premature to declare victory, and I am very uncomfortable when they give the impression that no problem remains," said Rick Cowles, president of CyberServices America, a computer consulting firm in New Jersey. Some experts were critical of the utilities' testing methods. "According to industry reports, only 40 units at a dozen utilities nationwide have done real-time integrated testing," said Roleigh Martin, a consultant for the Minnesota legislature. "That's less than 1 percent of the units nationwide. But since those didn't find a problem, they're saying the rest of the industry doesn't need to do full-scale testing. I don't think that's a sound conclusion." But Arnold said the biggest concern is where some smaller utilities and rural cooperatives stand in their effort. That may not indicate a Y2K problem, but a lack of information, he said. "We are told that these smaller utilities don't have a lot of computer automation to deal with," Arnold said. "Most of their systems are operated electro-mechanically or manually."