Now that there is deregulation, how can one find out whether some of these other companies are more compliant than PG&E (which I am worried about)? Do they have to post their y2k status someplace? And if the grid holds, and say, PG&E does have problems, will other companies be in better shape (if they are ahead,) or is electricity exchanged by all companies in such a way that it would not even matter? sophia

-- Anonymous, January 22, 1999

Answers

GREAT question, Sophia! In fact, so good, you get multiple answers and an opinion for free!

Answers: There is no place to go that does a "qualitative" Y2k assessment, and will tell you that one company is more Y2k compliant than a competitor in the same region. About the best you can do is compare Securities and Exchange Commission filings (10Q's or 10K's) from competing companies side by side, and read the Year 2000 disclosures. You still have to make your own decision about how compliant you feel each individual company is. You can find 10Q's and 10K's by doing a search of the SEC EDGAR archives at: www.sec.gov. And to answer your questions about the grid, California is in a situation much different from the rest of the country - all the power in California goes through the California ISO (independent system operator), and is then routed to the various member electric companies. So if one electric company in California is significantly impacted by Y2k, chances are, many others are also because of the interconnectedness via the ISO.

Commentary: Sophia's questions bring out another great data point for judging how far along individual electric companies are in dealing with Y2k, particularly in the California market where customers have the ability to pick their power provider. Let's pose a hypothetical question: if you were a marketing rep for a California power company that knew for a certainty that it was Y2k OK, wouldn't you use that as a major marketing point?? "Hey, switch your power to XYZ Power Company! We guarentee we're going to be ready for Y2K!" What a marketing coup!! You'd have customers knocking down your door.

But no one is doing this. That's what I mean about this being a great data point for industry readiness as a whole. Not one electric company is using Y2k as a marketing hook, even in an extremely competitive environment such as exists in California.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 1999

Well, I contacted (email) several companies and inquired about their y2k compliency and one wrote back and said that they were 100 compliant (cleen & green) and that their energy was fully "renewable". But I did notice that it is distributed through the ISO, and it would only get "tagged" onto my PG&E bill (plus it cost more). So all in all I am pretty dissappointed :-( Thanks for your help, Rick.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 1999

Sophia: Ronals Reagan used to say: "Trust but Verify". When the major chemical companies get an assertion of y2k compliance from a major supplier, they tell us, they verify the assertion by an on-site audit. Same for assertions from managers within their company.

The UK government, reportedly, has ordered all the UK utilities to undergo an independent audit. It seems crucial to urge local and state officials here to do likewise, and especially emergency managers who desperately need accurate info for life-and-death emergency planning.

So we all need to learn how to ask the right questions and how to judge the answers...our homework for the year.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 1999