Yesterday on my local radio station--it stated Wisconsins first utility will be ready for y2k---All critical processes will be y2k compliant by April--then says it identified possible problems at power plants including Kewanee--it made corrections and tested systems to make sure plants are ready.

Well this sure sounds great--my question Is it? I wanted to be able to post a url but nothing in any newspapers about it that I could find. I did call the radio station to ask them how they got it--said it came off a wire service from Madison,Wi that is for radio stations.

News like this should be made awhole lot more public---thats why I question it.

I hope you can set me straight on this.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 1999

Answers

I find this report confusing. It says "All critical processes will be y2k compliant by April" then it says "it made corrections and tested systems to make sure plants are ready"

What is confusing is the two don't go together. The first quote uses "will" which is future. The second quote uses "made" and "tested" which is past.

The question is, if everything has been tested and made ready, why "will" they be compliant later? Why are they not compliant now? Why were they not compliant last year? Is it not important enough to them to be done early? What is the name of the uncorrected system that they think may not be done by April?

I hope that more reporters get to asking these hard questions.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 1999

Maji, perhaps the reason the story hasn't been picked up is that the utility is saying they will be compliant in April - but they aren't there yet. So it's a wait and see situation. Nearly all utilities are "saying" they will have critical systems ready by mid year - even some which have barely begun the actual fixing or testing yet.

The time frame is similar to last year when almost all government agencies and major businesses declared they would be fixed by December 31, 1998 - with a whole year for testing those fixes. Maybe I just missed seeing a mass of statements from these same entities reporting they made their schedule and are now done fixing and into testing? Or is it that those estimates turned out to be more optimism than reality? I sincerely hope the radio report does turn out to be good news, but I'd personally only be celebrating if the utility had said, "We're done NOW."

-- Anonymous, January 20, 1999

Thank-you for responding to my post. I find this entire situation very stressful. I will continue to follow this forum and a few others. Just like many others who are waiting for some good news about our future.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 1999