WELCOME TO DURBAN METRO ELECTRICITY YEAR 2000 PROJECT REVIEW With Compliments of the Year 2000 Project Team

MAIN FUNCTIONS:Broad outlines of matters covered in our Year 2000 Programme All Business Information Systems. Distribution of Electricity & related controls. Interfaces with Council & other business partners. Metering Systems and related control systems. Control over embedded chips and PLC's. Hardware / Desktops / Area Networks. Customer Service Centres. Eskom our Business Partner.

BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS Compliancy certificates from both Mincom & Lloyds of London. Networked to DME's headquarters, 14 depots & 1200 Users Fully tested in-house to prove continued functionality, reliability and compliancy. Interfaces correctly with all outside data sources. Continuous upgrade patches are installed for improved functionality.

ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION NETWORK All 52 major substations are compliant. Every component is tested and proved compliant. Contingency plans are already in place for all critical components. Staff trained and available on call out for any eventuality. Future sub stations and other new projects will be compliant from commissioning dates. Full technical support available at year end.

CORPORATE MAINFRAME Total accord between DME's Hewlett Packard mid-frame boxes and the Corporate mainframe. All regression testing between the two has been satisfactory and contingency plans are in place. Standard Bank CATS on-line banking system is compliant. Pick & Pay Supermarket & Post Office continue with cash collections for DME customers. All Q-Pac staff payroll systems tested and are now compliant.

METERING SYSTEMS 800 remotely read bulk consumer meters are compliant. Contingency plans include manual readings being taken in the field, and accounts being generated in-house should problems arise. Preprinted account estimates will go out should any problems arise. 375 000 single & poly-phase credit meters are compliant.

EMBEDDED COMPONENTS Based on numerous and extensive tests, we do not envisage any embedded components causing an interruption to the electricity supply. Many other systems use embedded chip technology and these have also been tested to ensure their proper functioning. Eg. Security systems, Co- Driver, Elevators and Air- conditioning, etc.

DRAWING OFFICE & SURVEY SYSTEMS All Global Positioning System software and hardware now upgraded to full compliancy. CAD drawing systems hardware and software is tested and certified compliant. CAD workstations and printing systems tested and certified complaint. Field hand-held controllers are brand new, tested and certified compliant. RouteMaster meter reading software upgraded.

AREA NETWORKS DME's WAN & LAN networks are compliant. 14 new Dell high capacity Pentium III servers installed for compliancy. Routers, hubs & backbone' are compliant. Corel Suite of applications is certified compliant. All other' desktop applications are being checked for compliance. All 1200-desktop PC's will be compliant by the 30th September 1999.

CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRES All 150 000 energy dispensers are compliant. All System Master Station's hardware and software upgraded to ensure continuity of operation. Live tokens successfully being dispensed to customers from four machines in two separate Customer Service Centres. All 86 sales outlets can now dispense tokens without a malfunction on either side.

COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Today's print, radio and TV media are often ill informed on technical matters. They constantly need to increase circulation and therefore concentrate on the negative / sensational aspects. DME has done everything to ensure that its business will continue without interruption into the next Century. "Lights out is NOT an option"

ESKOM OUR MAIN BUSINESS PARTNER 1999-07-01 completely Year 2000 compliant/ready Max capacity 29Gw, normal loads around 16Gw Deliberate load shedding is a problem for Eskom. At 9Gw network is unstable, hard to manage and at 4Gw it's likely to black out. Eskom might reduce certain tariffs to encourage normal year end usage. So don't shutdown at the year end, maintain normal loads for a completely stable network.

SUMMARY Three years ago Durban Metro Electricity embarked on a comprehensive Y2K programme and has shown due diligence in ensuring and assuring that electricity and all other related services will continue without interruption through the turn of the millennium and beyond.

THIS IS THE MESSAGE TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST. With Compliments of the Year 2000 Project Team

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

Answers

Thank you, James. Your customers are fortunate to receive such a comprehensive report. It is far superior to many of the "We're working on it and we have confidence we'll be ready," type of statements U.S. customers receive in the envelope with their electric bills.

Also, your report states that your company has been working on Y2K issues for three years. Unfortunately (for us), this is a year or more longer than a portion of our electric utilities have been at the process. There are also still a few of the Independent Power Producers and Rural Cooperatives in this country which have not responded at all to the status reporting process. Our Municipal (city-owned) utilities are also farther behind in the process than the larger bulk producers, often because of the lack of personnel qualified to do Y2K assessments and local budget restraints which preclude hiring outside help or replacing systems. How much impact (if any) this will have on our national grid system won't really be able to be determined beforehand, as there is little in the way of enforcement mechanisms to require status reports from the utilities here. Even our Security and Exchange Commission, which regulates investor-owned businesses, has been disappointed in the lack of details re Y2K status it's been provided.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999