Dan, on thread

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000hkX

concerning the recent NERC power company drill and your role in it, you posted:

[snip]

...we will all be "Y2k ready" and essentially completed with all our testing and remediation by June 30 of this year. "Ready" here means that the device may have recording errors, but it's basic functionality will not be compromised come year 2000 (if it's a protective relay, it will still maintain its security and reliability). We aren't waiting for 2000 to fix embedded systems, 99% OF THEM WERE ALREADY Y2K READY, AND THE ONES THAT AREN'T WILL BE UPGRADED LONG BEFORE 2000.

-- Dan (dgman19938@aol.com), April 10, 1999.

And I asked:

Dan: Can you tell us the name of the facility you are referring to? Or is your "readiness" a secret?

a (a@a.a), April 10, 1999.

Can you reply please?

-- a (a@a.a), April 11, 1999

Answers

a@a.a: The statement you snipped was not really regading the NERC drill. As you well know, the drill was merely an exercise in verifying that some backup communications equipment is available in the event that Y2K causes primary communications to fail. It was more of a drill of operator's reactions to this situation than it was any kind of test. This has already been discussed numerous times on several other threads.

Regarding my statment above, I still stand by it. At my company, of the 10,000 or more devices we had to investigate, only about 1,000 had any date functionality in them. Of the 1,000, testing has not found a SINGLE device that would have failed its basic functionality come year 2000, that could have resulted in loss of power delivery to customers. Many devices are being upgraded so that their non- essential reporting functions will work properly, but again, even if they had not been upgraded, power delivery would not have been interrupted.

Most power companies are still finishing up their testing efforts, so you won't see much on their web sites until after June 30. Come July, you will see many, many power companies declaring themselves Y2K ready. But I'm telling you in advance because I'm one of the people who has been Y2K testing the past 2 years, and I know what the other power companies are doing (through data sharing, meetings and conferences).

One example you can find on the web is at www.idahopower.com. In the Y2K FAQ section, the question is "How is the embedded systems evaluation and testing going?" The answer is "So far, we have found no problems with embedded systems that would interrupt power." This is consistent with what over 100 power companies in the US and Canada are reporting.

Dan.

-- Dan (dgman19938@aol.com), April 11, 1999.