The following article was published in Infotech Weekly, Page 1, Monday , 6 September 1999.

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Electricity gets poor Y2K report

By AMANDA WELLS

A SURVEY of electricity organisations' Year 2000 readiness issued last month paints such a bleak picture that the sector is commissioning its own report.

According to the Y2K Readiness Commission's June survey of 38 electricity organisations, released late last month, only 39 per cent had finished work on "fixing or getting around the problem in some other way".

Robert Scott, director of Transpower's Millennium Project and chairman of the electricity industry's focus group, says the commission's report did not ask the right questions and "is not particularly relevant".

"That survey doesn't hone in on the things that really matter for the delivery of electricity."

Mr Scott says the question that needs to be asked is: "When will you have completed the remediation of systems essential for the delivery of electricity?"

The electricity industry has commissioned research firm BRC to write another report, with results due out this month. The Readiness Commission has another electricity sector survey due out on September 28.

The June survey makes disturbing reading.

The commission did not hold a press conference marking its release, as it did for other reports, though it was posted on the commission's Web site.

Most power companies had assessed the extent of their Y2K problems in June but Mighty River, Mercury Energy, First Electric, Genesis, Westpower Greymouth, Scanpower, MainPower, and CHB were still working on defining the problem - with only six months to go.

Only two electricity organisations claimed to have finished all their Y2K preparations: Marlborough Lines and CHB.

Sixty-two per cent of generator-retail companies said their Y2K preparations would be completed between July and September, but 38 per cent are cutting it fine and will not be ready till October-December 1999.

Some transmission and lines companies are also leaving it late, with 23 per cent expecting preparations to be finished between October and December 1999.

But Mr Scott says such statistics are misleading because many electricity companies will continue Y2K work till January 1.

"We don't expect that we ever have a date where we say: `We've finished and we've done everything that we can do'.

"It's like we've finished the exam but we're not leaving the exam room."

The survey reports that only United Networks, Northpower and Central Power had in June tested both the Y2K fixes of their own computers and their linkages with other organisations.

Mr Scott says, however, that not all the industry's computer systems are crucial for the deliver of electricity.

For example, he says work on Transpower's document management and intranet systems have not been finished but "we are not worried about them".

According to the June survey, 38 per cent of generator-retail companies have already encountered Y2K problems, and 33 per cent of these describe the problems as moderate. Twenty-seven per cent of the transmission and lines companies have experienced year 2000 problems.

Mr Scott says all problems found so far have had nuisance value rather than the potential to disrupt power.

And he says retail companies' compliance is not critical because they do not have any effect on the delivery of electricity.

"The worst thing that would happen is that you wouldn't get your power bill on time."

Transpower, the state-owned enterprise that owns and operates the national grid, says its five most critical projects have been completed, and its Y2K work is at an advanced stage.

Alan Jenkins of the Electricity Networks Association says deregulation has taken away some of the accountability for Y2K preparation.

State-owned ECNZ was split into three smaller entities in April and there was an enforced division between lines companies and electricity retailers, resulting in a diffusion of responsibility.

"It's much easier to say: `It wasn't my fault, it was them'."

The reforms have created huge amounts of work for electricity organisations, Mr Jenkins says, with companies forced to focus on establishing themselves and their businesses rather than on Y2K remediation.

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I like the comment that says "It's like we've finished the exam but we're not leaving the exam room." That pretty well sums Contact Energy. It is also worth noting that Mighty river, First Electric and Genisis are the three government owned generators that I mentioned in a previous post.

Malcolm

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Answers

Malcolm,

Super report. It sure does have some management folks squirming, but that is also typical right here in the US. So, we have a report that is not very optimistic, in fact is very troubling, with so little time remaining. And, the industry will now do its best to issue a better report shortly. Sounds like our own NERC approach to the facts. Even sounds like the recent Navy report that Jim Lord released, which was pretty bad looking, but was quickly updated to "a lot better" and then the previous report, and its data, was shredded by the government itself. Sounds like messengers with bad news are getting shot everywhere.

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

I notice that this report has been mentioned by factfinder and others in other threads. So I figured I'd better try and put some of his in context.

The report is on all systems within the industry, and not just he critical ones, as shown in the following section. (please forgive the formating.)

The full report is available at: (my first try at a hot link) http://www.y2k.govt.nz/nz/energy/index.html

Link

Q3 When do you expect your computer systems to all be ready for the Year 2000?

Table 3: When computer systems are expected to be ready for the year 2000 (Q3) Transmission& Lines n=30 Generator/Retail n=8

% % Ready now 33 0 July-September 1999 54 100 October-December 1999 10 0 Sometime in the year 2000 0 0 Never 0 0 Don't know 0 0 No essential computers systems 3 0 Total 100 100

Q4 When do you expect your equipment with electronic chips, other than computer systems, to be ready for the Year 2000?

Table 4: When equipment with embedded electronic chips is expected to be ready for the year 2000 (

Q4) Transmission & Lines n=30 Generator/Retail n=8 % % Ready now 33 13 July-September 1999 57 87 October-December 1999 7 0 Sometime in the year 2000 0 0 Never 0 0 No essential computer systems 3 0 Don't know 0 0 Total 100 100

-- Anonymous, September 11, 1999