Hi All. I am new to all the yk2 stuff and am craming. Please help! Just heard aout y2k June,1998 so I am getting a late start.Are you people out there who work for the power companys making personal contigency for your familys? How drastic? I do not mind if you answer on my e-mail if you do not want your answer posted in public forum. I think your anwer would help many others like myself who wonder if this is going to a minor glich or something more major than we can imagine.Thank you for your time if you decide to answer. Jamie

-- Anonymous, July 04, 1998

Answers

I work for one of the largest utilites in the world. I work on the automation system that controls the E-Grid. I am seeing a great deal of effort and capitol being put into preparing for Y2k. This includes the first draft of a contengency plan with trigger dates for implementation if Y2k remediation goals are not met. So far it looks as if we will be in a pretty good place in terms of readyness and our top brass is giving this a very high priority. However no one can say "How Deep and How Long" Y2k troubles will go. Based on that statement I already have the inital plans with my neighbors to pull together the same as we would in any disaster this includes being prepared with Food,Water(8 55 Gallon Plastic Drums) and various other reccomended items for diaster preparedness. It certanly is a good thing to be ready for any sort of scenario. I was here during the L.A. Riots and was not prepared. I had to go out and find the things I needed for my family. I would have much prefered staying home and watching the whole thing on TV. If I can send my family on vacation somewhere safe I will for I am planning on being at GROUND ZERO 1/1/00 (That is at work standing by to see what happens and ready to go into action)I hope my wife is right and this is a bunch of baloney so far my research has me in the "Brownout mild global recession club"

-- Anonymous, July 04, 1998

I am not the manager of an electric utility, but as a Senior Consultant at a consulting engineering firm that "is" most of the engineering department for several small publicly owned utilities, I do have some insights. We have been doing some y2k investigations. I wasn't too concerned until I stumbled on something in a vendor check for one client. There are a number of electric power meters, some computerized electric power relays, and PLC's that are not y2k compliant. Some of them may cause problems, a few will cause serious problems, but most are just going to be a maintenance pain in the ___. What scared me was when I contacted Cummins (Onan diesel emergency generators). They gave me an honest asessment of which of the diesel generators are y2k compliant. They also told me that a whole bunch of their older ones, may or may not be y2k compliant.

Most power plants and critical health safety (or lifesupport) loads use emergency generators as backup power sources. Some electric power plants rely upon emergency generators for "black start" capability. If there is a problem with the emergency generators we (as a society) may have a much more serious problem than most realize.

As a former electric utility (1300 MW) System Planning Supervisor I did a lot of reliability analysis. Most major transmission systems can only handle a double contingency failure. One of the buz words we use to talk alot about was common mode failure and how to avoid it. Well, y2k is the ultimate common mode failure of both generation and transmission. I know very few transmission systems that can handle multiple transmission/generation problems.

As for me, I have already recieved one "all expenses paid" request for my attendance at an electric utility 1999/2000 New Year's eve party. The client serves a major oil refinery and is very nervous about what might happen during major outage and wants me close at hand.

So on New Years Eve in about 18 months, I will have a bottle of champaign, some candles, a whole bunch of flashlights, one-line electrical drawings, books, multi-meters, laptop with charged battery, hand tools, my Nomex (fireproof) jumpsuit, hardhat, insulated gloves, etc.

I'll bet just about any engineer who has a y2k expertize will also be celibrating the New Year at work.

Bob Schneider Vice President D. Hittle & Associates, Inc.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 1998