My sister and her husband -DGI's with 4 children- ("The govt., banks, power co., etc. [ad nauseum] have *everything* under control") gave me this to read from our illustrious power company (Mpls/St. Paul area). Needless to say, they now refuse to believe anything *I* may say about the issue.

And gosh, I felt so much better after reading this from NSP. I especially liked this part, "THE NATIONAL ELECTRIC RELIABILITY COUNCIL HAS STATED IT DOES NOT ANTICIPATE PROBLEMS WITH THE ELECTRIC DELIVERY SYSTEM" or how about this one: "For generating plants that depend on fossil fuels, sufficient fuel will be stockpiled." I could go on and on but I'm too busy screaming!!

Help! What is the best way to answer this? I'm infuriated by such careless, "cover our butts" propaganda.

Scarlett - "Steaming in Minnesota"

****************************************************************

Release Date: December 30, 1998

ONE YEAR TO Y2K: NSP WILL BE READY TO MEET CHALLENGE

MINNEAPOLISOfficials of Northern States Power Co. today informed customers that the company will be well prepared to keep electricity and natural gas flowing on Jan. 1, 2000. Thats the date that many believe will play havoc with computers and other equipment, whose microprocessors may not correctly recognize the change from 1999 to 2000.

"With one year to go, I am pleased to report that our massive Y2K efforts here at NSP are proving to be very successful," said Loren L. Taylor, president of NSP Electric. "Were well ahead of plan."

Taylor explained that NSP has invested several years, more than $24 million, and the efforts of 400 employees in addressing the Y2K readiness of electric and natural gas equipment. The results: NSP is ahead of schedule and has confirmed the Y2K readiness of about 70 percent of the equipment and systems which may be vulnerable to the Y2K bug.

NSPs strategy has been to identify all equipment "embedded" with microprocessors, and then to take the steps necessary for Y2K readiness. A similar process is taking place with computer systems and programs. NSP has been working closely with its vendors and suppliers to share information and prevent problems. And NSPs electric system design includes redundant systems, many of which do not depend on computers; therefore, if a component malfunctions, it will have a backup system to take over.

Fully 80 percent of NSPs electric delivery system pre-dates computers, and the system can be operated manually if necessary. So far, only minor problems have surfaced. In one case, a sensing device at a substation took an extra 1/5 of a second to operate when placed in a simulated millennium changeover, an anomaly that doesnt impair the electric system.

NSPs system control center is the most computer-oriented part of the electric delivery system. Its the place where the entire system is monitored and controlled, and it is a major focus of NSPs Y2K efforts. NSP plans to remain connected to the regional power grid for the changeover, but will have the option of disconnecting if there are major problems elsewhere. The National Electric Reliability Council, commissioned by the federal government to evaluate electric reliability, has stated it does not anticipate problems with the electric delivery system.

At NSP power plants, about 80 percent of Y2K sensitive components and systems have been evaluated, tested and are known to be Y2K ready. The Y2K program at the Monticello nuclear plant was recently reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and found to be satisfactory, and the Prairie Island nuclear plants program is also on track with no major problems discovered. For generating plants that depend on fossil fuels, sufficient fuel will be stockpiled. Overall, NSP has more generation capacity available than the peak demand on a typical Jan. 1, so the remote chance of an outage at one or two generating units would not affect service to customers.

For NSP Gas customers, no disruption of service is expected: the system is not computer-dependent and is self-powered. In addition, NSP owns a major gas transmission line, so supplies should not be adversely affected. So far, no major Y2K issues have surfaced, according to Mark Nelson, director of gas control and engineering. "Weve modified key software and are very confident that well maintain natural gas service on Jan. 1, 2000," Nelson said.

NSP serves 1.4 million electric customers and more than 400,000 natural gas customers. "Our customers are our top priority," Taylor said. "On every day we make contingency plans to provide the best service. We deal with outages year in and year out. You can be sure that on Dec. 31, 1999, we will be ready to maintain service with minimal disruptions to our customers."

If you'd like to see our list of past news release, please visit our index.

-- Scarlett (ohara@tara.net), February 08, 1999

Answers

With all do respect....I am a GI and I am worried about things on 1/1/00...however, I would love to get a letter like this from my power company....Maybe you should be screaming for joy rather than out of disgust. Sounds like they are doing a hell of a job!!!

PMM

-- PMM (grute22@yahoo.com), February 08, 1999.

PMM--

With all due respect...thanks, but no thanks. I've read up on NERC--have you?

-- Scarlett (ohara@tara.net), February 08, 1999.

er, Scarlett - got radiation suits?

TWO nuke plants?? yikes!

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 09, 1999.

Arlin--

You sure brightened my day. Thanks! :>)

WISH LIST - suits fallout shelter transfer to Bahamas

-- Scarlett (ohara@tara.net), February 09, 1999.

Scarlet,

Check out Roleigh Martin's website. I believe he is from Minnesota and is very familiar with NSP. He also has a mailing list you can get on. It'll scare the crap out of you, though.

-- Dave (dave22@concentric.net), February 09, 1999.

No offense, PMM, but that release was the usual lawyer-crafted claptrap. Nowhere did it say the utility was compliant. All I saw was "ready, ready, ready." I direct your attention to the next to last paragraph: "... no disruption of service is expected... " Now look at the lasy paragraph: " ... we will be ready to maintain service with minimal disruptions to our customers." Well, which is it to be?

-- Vic (Roadrunner@compliant.com), February 09, 1999.

Scarlett,

At the risk of going against the tide of opinion, I suspect SOME of the power groups will be ready.

When up at the Seattle Year 200 Expo I had a "long" chat with people from the Bonville Power Authority. They service the Pacific Northwest and were explaining a definition I hadn't heard before:

They said when a power utility refers to itself as "Y2K Compliant" it means they have gone through assessment, remediation and testing but do not have contingency plans. If they say "Y2K Ready" they've done all that PLUS have contingency plans in place.

I'd like to have alternate confirmation of that "definition" as pertains to their industry.

In Northern California we're not getting much out of PG&E in the way of any news. There is a Public Utilities Commission that oversees them. At the Oakland Y2K conference I attended this past weekend, a California State Senator speaking to the group said that is where we need to focus public disclosure pressure.

Perhaps your area has a similar group overseeing your state's power utilities.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 09, 1999.

Very true, all good news is propaganda, all bad news is facts. Why would we be participating in this forum if we didn't already know this?

Yup, this statement is lies from start to finish. How do I know? Becuase everyone who agrees with me says so, and everyone who disagrees is wrong. How could any reasonable person fail to see such an obvious fact? I don't know a volt from my elbow, and I don't need to, to know a blackout is certain.

Besides, it says so right there in the story. In the first paragraph, it says "the company will be"; in the third paragraph it says "vulnerable to"; and in the fourth paragraph it says "component malfunctions". Just read it: "The company will be vulnerable to component malfunctions". You only need to read very carefully to see what they're *really* saying. How can you deny this?

But it gets worse -- just look at what they're hiding! They failed to report that the nukes won't work. They failed to report how they'll handle a grid outage. They carefully didn't mention what might happen if fuel supplies can't be delivered. Earthquakes, floods, volcanos and meteors were completely ignored! This is shameful!

If you live in Minnesota, leave! South-central Virginia is supposed to be the best possible place to live anyway. Move there now!

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), February 09, 1999.

I would ask your relatives when was the last time they placed the safety and welfare of their children into the hands of a large corporate entity??? Never??? Well, then why are they insisting on doing it NOW???

-- (mass@delusions.com), February 09, 1999.