Does anyone know what the readiness is of Con Edison - the metro NYC area's supplier? When customer service was asked, they referred me to public affairs, but quickly added that that number was not available for the Public! Still have not received a response. Thanks.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 1999

Answers

Larry, I can give you the pertinent info from Consolidated Edison's third quarter 1998 10Q SEC filing. You can also access their Year 2000 statement in the 10Q yourself by going to:

http://www.sec.gov/edaux/formlynx.htm

Con Edison states it began a program to address Year 2000 issues in 1995. An inventory and assessment of its IT systems was completed. The inventory and assessment of its embedded systems was expected to be completed by the end of 1998 (so it should be done now). They estimated that any necessary changes to systems, infrastructure and embedded technologies will be completed by June 1999, but also stated that testing for Year 2000 readiness will continue throughout 1999.

Con Edison estimated the cost of its Year 2000 project would be approximately $27 million and that they had already incurred $20 million. (Their ratio of costs spent to date/total project costs was much higher than the majority of utilities. I personally think this is a good indicator that the company is putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak, but others have doubts about using costs as an indicator of progress.)

I will give you another reason why I personally believe Con Edison might be ahead of the pack. Their Year 2000 statement was concise and straightforward (in comparison to most others) without much of the attendant bureaucratese found in other utilities' statements. In other words, they didn't use hundreds of words to cloud what usually amounted to very little actual info. They are developing contingency plans, because like every utility, they stated that there is no assurance that outside issues (suppliers, grid partners, etc.) will not impact them, regardless of their own readiness.

Overall, Consolidated Edison's 10Q gave me a more optimistic feeling than many others, but of course this is no guarantee of anything.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 1999