It was rumored in one of the many forums I read (probably Yourdon's), that the Dee Cee area's PEPCO (electric utility) would be taking individual power-generation plants "off-line" for 2 weeks at a time this spring for testing.

*IF* this is done, and *IF* the testing goes pretty well, would this be a sufficient cause for optimism?

-- Anonymous, January 24, 1999

Answers

It might be cause for optimism - for PEPCO's customers. It certainly wouldn't be cause for optimism for customers of a company other than PEPCO. I think I've said in this forum before: every company and plant is so different, constructed to different specifications by different architect/engineering firms, that you can't overlay testing results from one company to another very well.

This concept is called "type testing". Many industries are using this concept to shortcut Y2k compliance testing. In my own personal view, type testing is a dangerous trap. This is because of the differences between plants, and even between components of the same make and model.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 1999