we don't have these problems... why do they?

Full text of this brief report: "Up to 4,000 London Electricity customers lost power over the weekend when a programme to upgrade powerkey meters for the millennium went wrong. The pre-payment keys currently in use will not register price changes after 31 December. London Electricity began a programme on Saturday to convert the 400,000 customers using these meters. But when the first customers plugged in the new keys, their meters were corrupted and their power supplies cut. A London Electricity spokesman said, 'We don't know exactly what has gone wrong, but we don't believe it's a software problem. We've suspended the programme for the time being.' By Monday afternoon, several hundred customers were still without power." Regulators: 99% of US Banks OK on Y2K as of June 30 (Jonathan Nicholson, Dow Jones Newswires -- requires paid registration)

http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=BT-CO-19990802-001921.djml

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

Answers

When did this happen? There is no date for the report.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

The initiative started this week

http://cnnfntech.newsreal.com/story/19990802/22/33/5206675_st.html

As for power outages in the U.S., This may just be a byproduct of the internet and it isn't rocket science. Highlights of past two weeks, 88 headlines, of Yahoo news server searched on power outages:

( a previous post mentioned one customer equals three persons )

Some Still Without Power (ABC NewsWire) Detroit Edison says 82-hundred metro Detroit customers should have their power restored by tonight. According to W-D-I-V T-V half of the outages are in Oakland County. Thousands of people were left in the dark after fierce storms

Trigen Energy Expert Calls for New Rules to Avert Power Outages (PR Newswire)

FEATURE/Fear of Power Interruptions Has Critically Ill Patients Scrambling for Cover (BusinessWire)

Cooperatives Brace for Y2k (ABC NewsWire)

Con Edison Hit With Another Lawsuit (ABC NewsWire) Con Edison is being slapped with another lawsuit stemming from power outages in Washington Heights during this month's heat wave.

ComEd will pay customers for heat-wave outages (Reuters)

Taiwan starts power rationing after blackout (Reuters)

Power Outage (ABC NewsWire) Officials say they are hoping to have all the power restored this morning in the Delta and Linwood Avenue areas of Cincinnati. Some construction workers accidentally cut cables there last night, putting some 12-hundred customers in the dark.

Brawl Marred Phillies-Braves Game (Associated Press) After the Phillies-Braves game was delayed 16 minutes by a power outage

Telephone Trouble (ABC NewsWire) It wasn't a power outage that inconvenienced residents in the western part of Lancaster County yesterday. But those in the Mountville 2-8-5 exchange lost telephone service right before noon. Service was restored later in the day

Power Outage Hits Hoboken, Hospital (ABC NewsWire) More than eleven-thousand P-S-E-&-G customers in Hoboken are without power this afternoon while repair crews try to fix a multiple cable failure. The power failure knocked out electricity to Saint Mary's Hospital for about eight hours today. Generators kept lights and equipment working.

*** Here's a good one, didn't hear this on CNN ***

Montreal exchange trading halted by power outage (Reuters) MONTREAL, July 28 (Reuters) - Trading in shares and derivatives was halted on the Montreal Exchange on Wednesday by a power outage. Exchange officials said at mid-morning they were expecting power to return shortly.

Power Outage on Rams First Workout (Associated Press)

San Francisco seeks $1.75 mln from PG&E for outage (Reuters)

Taiwan blackouts causes more than T$2 bln damage (Reuters)

FOCUS-Worst blackout in decades hits Taiwan (Reuters)

*** Now this made me think *** Lights flicker momentarily at NYSE, trading OK (Reuters) NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - The power supply at the New York Stock Exchange went out for a moment on Thursday afternoon, triggering a loud shout of surprise from startled traders on the world's largest stock trading floor

Will go out on a limb and say that if there are absolutley no problems between now and 2,000 and the price of gas stays where it is (nearly $2/gallon on West Coast) the DOW will end below 10,000 for the year. Think increase in gas prices equivalent to tax on profits for any companies using that form of energy.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

As i reread your post the question arises, might the 400,000 customers with currently unremediated meters be expected to similarly lose power on Jan 1, from corrupted meters?

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

Up to 4,000 London Electricity customers lost power over the weekend when a programme to upgrade powerkey meters for the millennium went wrong.

I think that Marianne was referring, not to power outages themselves, but to the cause: a Y2K upgrade gone awry. And to the need for a Y2K upgrade that could go awry.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1999