Is that thrue that there is no major spare critical equipement in inventories of elect. power Producers

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This question is for Rick Cowles or anybody else who is aware on the matter. Yesterday,I had a long chat with my friend whom is a high ranking folks working in a VERY BIG Player on the Power Grid. He told me that he realy think that they will be ready.... But.... When he told me that the Company hold no Expensive parts in their inventory, that everything is "just in time delivery or on demand", because they are so Expensive... I freaked a little... And when he add....that almost every critical parts are from OVERSEAS! I started to feel VERY CONCERNED, knowing that Shipping,Banking,Ports, Overseas will be possibly very disturbed.

CAN IT BE THE REALITY ?

If so is it possible to build and share RIGHT NOW, a pool of Critical Parts HERE in North-America?

I am more and more CONCERNED!

-- Anonymous, March 16, 1999

Answers

Rick,

He brings up a good point that maybe you can update us on. I have read that complex embedded systems are running more than a 9 month delay from date of order, and large diesel backup generators such as those used at the nuke sites are running more that a 1 year delay. Do you have any current information on this?

-- Anonymous, March 16, 1999


I am waiting for an answer on the Utilities Inventories STATUS !

Big ITEMS like BIG TRANSFORMERS, HD RELAYS ETC......

-- Anonymous, March 17, 1999


Very Concerned,

I have been watching for replies to your question with interest, because I asked a similar question some time ago. Mine was focused on inventory with respect to manual operation. I was referred to an older thread on manual operation. Here's the address:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0001Wf

Unfortunately I finished reading that thread with a sense of dissatisfaction, since I did not feel that the thread answered my question. Perhaps you can go over it, and share your thoughts.

LP

-- Anonymous, March 20, 1999


Yes it is true that the industry uses "just in time" inventory. My husband worked for over 20 years in procurement at a nuclear plant here in South Jersey. They don't have spare parts on big ticket items. It was his job to get them there ASAP. This could be a problem.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 1999

Thank you LP and Linda.

I know since yesterday, from an other personnal working for this power cie that the industry uses "just in time" inventory. This is a FACT!

So it is not the way things should be !

The Power Grid PARTICIPANTS should build and share RIGHT NOW, a pool of Critical Parts HERE in North-America!

Big Items Critical should be stocked in the four Corners of North-America...and everywhere else in the world where peoples are so dependable on electricity.

Rick what do you think? Is it too late for that Vital Step?

-- Anonymous, March 22, 1999



Very concerned, most utilities in this country are independent businesses. Neither the government nor citizens can tell them how to spend their capital, organize their business, or how to operate it. (Unless citizens are stockholders in the company, then they sometimes can vote for a board of directors - but they can't dictate how the money is spent even so.)

Your proposed plan may have merit as far as contingency efforts go, but you're not addressing how all these incredibly expensive parts would be paid for to begin with. The expense would be prohibitive, I seriously doubt if any utility could come up with the money even assuming they didn't have to build a warehouse to hold these items. We're talking tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars here -- sometimes just for one "big ticket" item. Not to mention that it takes months just to get the financial powers that be in a company to sign off on any expenditures. Just the Y2K remediation projects themselves have caused some utilities to have to borrow funds or capitalize costs.

If most citizens won't (or can't) pony up the money to stock even an extra week or two of supplies, then expecting utilities to do even more just doesn't work. Time is short, make sure you've got your own household prepared. That's our best defense as things stand right now.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 1999


Thank you very much Bonnie. Wilco.

Anyways,the Cost to be without will surely come a lot more Prohibitive for this civilisation. We put our priorities in war machines!

Ready! Well...almost...

V.C.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 1999


I am not sure what the relationship is between Y2K and "big critical spare parts", but I know of a number of utilities that stock or pool share million dollar items such as reactor coolant pumps and the like. The plants I have worked at stock many millions of dollars worth of spare parts, and JIT is just a dream....not sure how the Jersey plant keeps running..;)

I have seen 2-3 month backlog in y2k upgrades and services with some vendors, and sure others are shorter or longer...tis the demand :)

Regards, FactFinder

-- Anonymous, March 26, 1999


Thank you very much FactFinder.

What I am very Concerned is the period 3 to 6 months after Jan 2000 when every Utility Company will strugle for parts! Imported ONES !

Very Concerned

-- Anonymous, March 27, 1999


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