Because there have been quite a few mentions of Westinghouse as a major supplier of components to the electric utility industry, I thought I'd see what I could find out about their status.

At the Westinghouse home page, we discover that the sections of Westinghouse have recently been sold to other companies:

"Today, the three companies of Westinghouse are focused on serving the needs of utility, government and industrial customers in power-related industries."

"The three companies were formed in early 1999, when CBS Corporation (then owners of the remaining Westinghouse Electric business units) reached an agreement of sale with British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) and the Morrison Knudsen Company (MK). The three companies are:

The Westinghouse Electric Company, which provides products and services for the commercial nuclear electric power industry

The Westinghouse Government Services Company (WGS), which is dedicated to the defense-program missions of the United States Department of Energy and the United States Department of Defense

The Westinghouse Government Environmental Services Company (WGES), which provides nondefense-related businesses with environmental and remediation services."

The first division, Westinghouse Electric, states on their site that it "provides fuel, services, technology and equipment to utility and industrial customers in the worldwide commercial nuclear electric power industry. The Westinghouse Electric Company is wholly-owned by BNFL Nuclear Services, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL).

Today, nearly 40 percent of the nuclear power plants in operation worldwide and nearly 50 percent in the United States use Westinghouse technology."

I was disappointed to find that Westinghouse Electric is now wholly-owned by a British firm -- no U.S. SEC reports with Year 2000 statements available to look at. (I checked and the last one filed with the SEC was in 1997.) So I went to the BNFL website. There is one press release there, dated Jan. 1999, about the "Millenium Computer Bug". It doesn't give too many details, but it does say that all "priority items identified in the inventory were dealt with by the end of 1998." I couldn't help thinking to myself, "Oh, good -- right after that they acquired Westinghouse Electric."

I also went to check out the Morrison Knudsen SEC filing, since they now own the Westinghouse Government Services Company (defense systems). For the period ending 2/26/1999, their 10Q Year 2000 statement isn't a confidence builder. The pertinent paragraphs say:

" Because of the scope of its operations, the Corporation believes it is impractical to seek to eliminate all potential Year 2000 problems before they arise. As a result, the Corporation expects that its Year 2000 assessments and corrections will include ongoing remedial efforts into the year 2000. The Corporation is using a risk-based analysis of its operations to identify those items that are critical to the Corporation and at risk. Critical items are being identified through the "inventory" phase of the Year 2000 Project." "The Corporation is in various "inventory," "assessment," "remediation" and "testing/validation" phases with regard to its IT systems and non-IT devices. As part of the Year 2000 Project regarding IT systems, the Corporation continues implementing new or upgraded Year 2000 compliant systems for financial information, human resources and payroll. These systems are expected to be completed in July, 1999."

There are no completion estimates given for non-IT systems or other possible software systems outside of billing, human resources and payroll. Nor is there any estimate of how far the company is in it's "phases". At least Morrison Knutsen is honest about triage and fix on failure for the rest.

I'm thinking of Marcella's "connect-the-dots" phrasing. British Nuclear Fuels and Morrison Knudsen are the proud new owners of a worldwide electric industry vendor and a military defense systems corporation. All the dots do make you wonder, don't they?

-- Anonymous, May 08, 1999

Answers

For the most part, anything Westinghouse once made you can eventually ferret out an answer, but it will cost you. On the nuclear turbine side, there are various owners groups and other get togethers, but you need to pay to get anything out of them. The sticky part gets into who sold you the original part, who bought them (British Nuclear bought the Nuclear Fuels Services Division, Siemens bought the Nuclear (and fossil) Turbines Division, and Emerson got the Process Controls Division), and whether the purchaser of that section wants to support the line. Most of the electronics, PLCs and DCSs went to Emerson, but not all. Turbine DCSs stayed with Siemens. You really need a roadmap, but to get anything meaningful, you need to find the actual Westinghouse personnel who developed the product. They tend to be very secretive in my past dealings.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999