William Ulrich of Triaxsys has written another column on Y2K & power companies- well, this time energy companies (ie, he includes oil companies). Ulrich has gone through a lot of 10Qs; he is not optimistic.

For example, Entergy Corp., a Southern power company, claims to have spent $15 million -- less than 19% -- of its $81 million year 2000 budget. Entergy's disclosure further states that "malfunctions could disrupt operations of nuclear or fossil generating plants, operation of transmission and distribution systems, access to interconnections with neighboring utilities, and cause other operational problems."

PG&E Corp., a California-based utility, spent $80 million -- or 31% -- of its $260 million year 2000 budget. Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. in New York state spent $5 million of its $40 million budget -- or 12% -- during that same time. And much of the difficult work still lies ahead, with just a year left.

Energy companies, which fuel numerous power plants, are also behind schedule. Chevron Corp. spent less than 16% of its $250 million year 2000 budget as of September.

The oil and gas company's 10-Q filing also stated that "interruptions could prevent the company from being able to manufacture and deliver refined products and chemicals products to customers. The company could also face interruptions in its ability to produce crude oil and natural gas."

The Exxon/Mobil conglomerate plans to spend $753 million to fix the problem. As of September, its two constituent companies collectively had spent $373 million -- less than half -- of their total year 2000 budget.

He concludes:

With other sources indicating that remediation efforts are missing the mark on many systems and that contingency teams are still mobilizing, it's hard to be optimistic about the power and energy industries right now.

The whole column (worth reading) is at:

http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/981214829E

Drew Parkhill/CBN News

-- Anonymous, December 15, 1998