In another thread Anita Spooner and I had a discourse on electric utilities. She has worked as a programmer at a Texas electric utility company and has graciously agreed to try and find out a little about the status of my local utility company.

She made this statement about Kit Carson Electric Cooperative which services portions ofnorthern New Mexico including the Taos area:

"I might also point out (as a source of comfort) that I have a very dear internet friend who lives in Taos, New Mexico. Yes...that would be the same area as Mr. Yourdon. Their electric company was seen as "down the tubes" until they sent representatives to Texas where they learned that they could simply set their dates back to 1972 until their new system became compliant. I have been told that they honored this thought and are currently running with patched dates.

This "patch" was more important for them, as if you've closely watched the Rick Cowles forum, electrical problems will NOT tend to cluster at the beginning of the year 2000, but cluster during periods of high electricity use. The HIGH usage in Taos is December, where the high use here in North Texas is more the summer period. We may very well have to suffer warm lemonade under a local shade tree this September if T.U. encounters problems while testing."

My question is, will the date setback described here work for the utility companies? Is this an intermediate solution for companies that will not be ready in time? Any input will be appreciated.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), May 22, 1999

Answers

I was out of town when the Kit Carson people gave a Y2K presentation in Taos a few months ago, so I can't report first-hand what they said.

However, it's my understanding that Kit Carson does not generate any of its own electricity, but rather distributes the power that it purchases from Plains Electric, a regional cooperative that covers parts of northern NM, southern CO, etc.

A colleague in Taos has tracked down Y2k compliance info that Plains allegedly submitted to the Public Service Commission, which indicates that they plan to be compliant by Dec 1999. Sorry, I don't have the URL handy (I'm in DC tonight, not in my office), so I'm not claiming this as "proof". My colleague also tells me that Plains is in difficult financial shape, and that it's trying to arrange to be acquired by another regional coop by the end of the year; again, I don't have definitive documents to prove this, either.

In any case, local Taos folks are familiar with the experience of the power going off for a few hours at a time, and occasionally for a full day or two; this is not uncommon for rural areas.

I have no knowledge of Kit Carson's visit to Texas and their discovery of the 1972 rollback trick.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), May 23, 1999.

Geez, Ray...are you giving me my 15 minutes of fame here?

I'd REALLY be curious to hear Ed's remarks on this one, as he attended the same fair at which my friend learned of this from her utility provider. Yes...Kit Carson DOES ring a bell.

Anita

-- Anita Spooner (spoonera@msn.com), May 22, 1999.

Interesting, Ed. This was mentioned at the Y2k fair on May 1st. You WERE there, weren't you?

Anita

-- Anita Spooner (spoonera@msn.com), May 24, 1999.