Does anyone have any Y2K info on Narragansett Electric in Rhode Island? Their website is misleading and the company itself doesn't answer direct Y2K questions too well. I'd really like to know where we actually (spelled - truthfully) stand with them. Thanks all and keep up the fine threads of enlightening conversations. Jeff Sullivan

-- Anonymous, March 12, 1999

Answers

Jeff - I don't know anything specific about Narragansett Electric, but this seems an opportune time to point out the operability of the search engine on euy2k.com - just go to the www.euy2k.com/search.htm, enter in Narragansett, and up pops their latest SEC 10Q Y2k disclosure. Actually, it's NEES's, their parent company, but wholly applicable (from a legal standpoint) to Narrangansett as well.

-- Anonymous, March 13, 1999

Rick, Just thought you'd like to know that your hotlink to the search engine came up empty. A notice says "File Not Found" and that they moved the server from AOL to MIT (?). Jeff

-- Anonymous, March 13, 1999

Jeff, I just tried it - worked fine for me. Perhaps there was a momentary problem on flintspark's server. Give it another try. Please email me if you have any other problems with it. Again, the URL is:

http://www.euy2k.com/search.htm

-- Anonymous, March 13, 1999

Rick - Thanks, it's working now (although they really don't give out too much info. Jeff

-- Anonymous, March 14, 1999

Jeff, Narragansett Electric is part of the New England Electric System (NEES) and the Year 2000 information links are the same for both the Narragansett home page and NEES' home page. The good news to be had is that according to the most recently available SEC 10Q statement for NEES, they had spent over 50% of their total estimated Y2K project costs. This is a better ratio than many I've seen.

The not so good news is that their mid-1999 completion estimations have the heading, "Substantial Completion of Critical Systems". As you probably know, "substantial" is one of those words for which interpretation can vary and does *not* mean "all". In all categories where NEES gave the "substantial" completion estimates, they also stated that "Contingency Testing, Documentation, and Clean Management" would continue "throughout 1999". In comparison to many other 10Q's I've read, I'd have to say NEES has a very good legal team because you couldn't pin them down to anything by the way their Y2K statement is worded. From a litigation risk standpoint, they have my admiration! If I was a customer, however, I'd be downright frustrated.

The company stated that they have "more than 150 computer applications; has 3,000 desktop computers; and 30 million lines of computer codes. The company has 350 external computer interfaces, which deal with 85 vendors." This doesn't mention embedded systems, nor is there any mention of how many of those business systems were assessed to be critical ones. Also, do not assume the mention of 85 vendors to mean that is all of the vendors NEES deals with. The reference is to those vendors they have external computer interfaces with. (In other words, those they are connected to and exchange data with.)

In the absence of definitive information, the best anyone can do is to prepare their own risk management program. I continue to believe that is the common sense approach to the many unknowns surrounding the Year 2000 problem. Good luck to you!

-- Anonymous, March 16, 1999