LIKE TO KNOW GERMANY'S (EUROPE'S) Y2K COMPLIANCE EFFORTS IN THE UTILITIES SECTORS. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR THE INFO. V/R ED

-- Anonymous, July 15, 1999

Answers

Edward, unfortunately I haven't run across a whole lot of information about utlity status in Germany or some other European countries. (Although the Netherlands is ranked by Gartner as being in the top rung of countries preparing for Y2K. Unfortunately, Germany is not so ranked.)

If you go to the New Questions page on this forum, there is a Search link at the top of the page. Do a search on "Germany" and you'll find some topics, mostly covering German nuclear issues.

There is also a German link on the Electric Utility WWW Resource List at:

http://www.wwa.com/~merbland/utility/utility.html

There are several links to German utilities at the Utility Connection site:

http://www.utilityconnection.com/page3x.html#Germany

I don't know if the German utility links will have Y2K info or not, but it might be worth a try.

There is an article in which Karl Fielder (Y2K PC expert) states that, "The biggest economy in Europe is Germany, and they seem to have done almost nothing about the problem and seem to be denying that it is real," he says. "They're about two years behind [the U.S.] in understanding this problem." This refers to the compliancy of PC's and PC applications, however, not particularly electric utilities, although some measure of extrapolation might be possible. The link to this article is at:

http://www.cbn.org/newsstand/y2k/insights.asp?file=990614b.htm

Then there is another article titled, "Germany Says It's Doing Fine On Y2K, Despite International Expert's Worries". This has responses and various opinions following up from a paragraph:

"But the warnings emanating from global consulting firms such as GartnerGroup and Cap Gemini that Germany is woefully behind in the worldwide effort to avert a Jan. 1, 2000, catastrophe raise the question of whether Germany is not just calm but complacent..."

The link for this article (and the original entire piece which was in the LA Times) is at:

http://www.cbn.org/newsstand/y2k/insights.asp?file=990607.htm

I hope these links are of some help to you. When experts disagree and the potential problems and interconnections of Y2K are global in scope, it's difficult to have surety in any area. I continue to believe that an individual or family Y2K risk management plan is a common sense precaution, but of course each person must decide for themselves on the most prudent preparations to take which are within their capabilities.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 1999

You could also try UNIPEDE/EURELECTRIC (http://www.eurelectric.org/Common/HomePage.asp). They have been holding workshops and sharing information on the state of readiness of the European electricity sector (east and west) for some time. It's my understanding that they are also one of the key sources of data for European Commisson readiness assessments for the electricity sector. The only public document they have on their site dates from March of this year, "UNIPEDE/EURELECTRIC member countries overall position on the Y2K problem 22/03/1999" (DIRECT LINK: http://www.eurelectric.org/Common/GetFile.asp?Doc=../docs/1999-521- 0001-1.pdf). More up to date information is available on the members only part of their site. Try contacting Mr. Howard Ramsden, Y2K Coordinator for access to this part of the site. You may have to provide legitimate reasons (e.g. risk assessment for your organisation). As I understand it, the data included in their latest assessment (from June 1999), is self-reported from the member companies and organisations and may not be attributed to EURELECTRIC. Still, it provides a picture, particularly as the information is gathered into a common reporting format using standard Y2K project terminology, thereby allowing for some comparison. It covers generation, transmission, distribution, nuclear, hydro etc. etc. Information from Germany is included.

-- Anonymous, July 16, 1999