On a local radio station today it was announced that all Kentcuky utility companies are compliant and we will have power. Can someone tell me if this true.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 1999

Answers

Linda, the Kentucky Utilities Company is a major subsidiary of LG&E Energy. The Year 2000 info link on the KU homepage takes you to the LG&E site. The Y2K Disclosure statement there, last updated on 3/16/1999 says:

"At present, the Company including LG&E, KU and WKE, has substantially completed the internal inventory, vendor survey, and compliance assessment portions (Phases I and II) of our Year 2000 plan for mission critical IT mainframe and PC hardware and software. Remediation efforts (Phase III) in these areas are approximately sixty percent complete. With respect to non-IT embedded systems, LG&E, KU, and WKE have moved into Phase III. For each Company entity where Phases I and II have been completed, Phase III remediation efforts are also in progress for non-IT embedded systems. Contingency plans have been initiated for all IT and non-IT mission critical systems and will continue throughout 1999."

Under the costs paragraph it also states, "Based upon studies and projections to date, the Company expects to spend an additional $12 million to complete its Year 2000 efforts."

Since this information will be only two weeks old as of tomorrow, I'd say it was very unlikely Phase III (remediation and testing) has gone from approx. 60% complete for software systems to "compliant" in half a month, or that having "moved into" phase III for embedded systems (with no completion percentage even given there) they've suddenly completed everything. Also, the percentages given were for mission critical systems only and the term "substantially completed" Phases I& II does not equate to "all done".

LG&E also states in the Conclusion section that "Any adverse impacts cannot be determined at this time."

URL: http://www.lgeenergy.com/Y2KDisclosure.htm

I don't have time right now to check the sites of other smaller Kentucky co-ops, municipals, etc., but the LG&E/KU info already contradicts the "ALL" claim on the radio station so at least you have some information towards answering your question.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 1999

Thank you Bonnie. I have been reading the SEC reports but after hearing this on the radio, I felt I had been misreading the statements and not understanding what I was reading.

My own utility is Kentuck Utility, if you find anything else out.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 1999

Linda,

Please do not make the mistake to assume that incomplete in testing means a certain Y2K failure. Testing is a means of using scientific method to measure an unknown - is there a Y2K problem. If you have 5 children and you suspect they may have a fever, you measure with a thermometer. If you only measure temp on two, and find all is normal with them, you cannot conclude that the other 3 have temps because they have not used the thermometer. (By the same token you cannot conclude they don't have a temp, so it is IMPERATIVE that all utilities complete testing, EVEN THOUGH few problems have been found in similar systems.)

-- Anonymous, March 30, 1999

Linda,

I didn't hear the radio broadcast. However, March 29 was the day a workshop was held in Lexington on Y2K Contingency Planning for electric and telecommunications utilities, so perhaps the broadcast was related to that. This workshop was sponsored by the Kentucky Division of Energy, Kentucky Public Service Commission, Kentucky Emergency Management, and Kentucky's Chief Information Office (the commonwealth's Y2K Project Team) and was intended to help address the interdependency issue between electric and telecom. Although the workshop was sponsored by state agencies, many electric and telecom utilities were heavily involved in the planning process. East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Tennessee Valley Authority, Louisville Gas & Electric (Kentucky Utilities), Owensboro Municipal Utilities, American Electric Power (Kentucky Power), BellSouth, and GTE worked with the state agencies and attended meetings every two weeks for several months. Not surprisingly, the workshop planning process was just as beneficial as the actual workshop, if not more so, as it provided an opportunity for key personnel, such as Y2K program managers, contingency planning managers, utility general managers, etc. to establish contact with key personnel in other utilities as well as in state government. For example, the planning process provides Kentucky's Emergency Management personnel with the opportunity to assess the situation with as much accuracy as possible, by being able to talk directly to the utilities. And TVA has included the state's Emergency Operations Center in the April 8-9 NERC communications drill. The workshop cemented existing relationships, and helped to extend these relationships to other utilities. All segments of both industries participated in the workshop - AT&T, BellSouth Mobility, Cinergy (Union Light Heat and Power), the Kentucky Telephone Association, members of the Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the Municipal Electric Power Association, to name a few. More recent planning meetings have included other important infrastructure elements, such as the petroleum, water and sewer, natural gas, and transportation industries.

Can we guarantee that the lights will stay on? No, but many now understand why that is, so I won't bore you with a repetition here. However, I can assure you that, consistent with our state motto, "United We Stand, Divided We Fall", we in Kentucky are more united now than ever before.

Martha M. Morton Manager, Electric Branch Division of Engineering Kentucky Public Service Commission

-- Anonymous, April 01, 1999