Electric company grocery spree food for thought!

By BERNARD PILON, EDMONTON SUN Alberta's major power supplier is stockpiling huge pallets of groceries and other emergency items should Y2K bugs turn out the lights, The Sun has learned.

Two weeks after city-owned EPCOR snapped up a backup generator should Jan. 1, 2000, turn into a computer-fouling disaster, TransAlta Corp. admitted yesterday to buying up to $15,000 in supplies, mainly canned goods, at a Save-On-Foods outlet.

The huge grocery bill - rung up last week at the B.C.-based chain's Sherwood Park location - is one of several being rung up so as many as 500 TransAlta workers can eat and see in the dark if Y2K woes strike any of its 250 remote switching stations. "If nothing goes wrong, we've got a bunch of groceries for the food bank," said TransAlta's Y2K project leader, Gary Steeves.

"We're pretty confident things will be all right. We just have to look at the worst-case scenario for critical times." Steeves didn't know how much TransAlta will ultimately spend on emergency foodstuffs.

Food and other items will be parcelled out to rural switching stations - all of which will be manned when Dec. 31 ticks down to 2000 - so TransAlta crews won't go hungry should they have to tackle a Y2K bug, he said.

Steeves calls the grocery list prudent planning.

University of Alberta computer science prof Randy Goebel calls it a confidence-buster - one that'll only make people skeptical of rosy predictions by electrical companies and other high-tech industries of a no-hassles new year.

"This has the potential to be very scary," Goebel said of TransAlta's latest addition to its $30-million Y2K price tag.

"The thing I'd worry about is a lot of the things we've heard about Y2K problems is (designed) to reassure people. Now, all of a sudden, we find this strange behaviour. It's alarming."

Goebel - convinced Y2K's bark will be much, much worse than any bite - skewered TransAlta for not thinking about how word of their shopping may trigger public uneasiness.

"For them to go out and spend $15,000 in one day in September - and (media) find out about it - shows they haven't thought of how this can be seen," said Goebel, an expert in database systems and network information.

Save-On-Foods spokesman Dennis Kinsey said from company headquarters in Langley, B.C., that TransAlta should be praised, not condemned, for raising awareness of possible Y2K woes in a public that's too complacent.

"I think you'll see consumers, definitely, get more prepared. The benefit of Y2K is it raises one's level of crisis management," Kinsey said.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 1999

Answers

We have done Y2K contingency planning for several companies. One of the elements of a contingency plan is making sure the people being asked to staff critical locations around the clock can be properly fed without leaving the sites. It seems that all TransAlta is doing is making provisions to feed the people who will be manning remote locations that don't have a handy 24-hour restaurant. To publish an article suggesting this an indication of what they think is likely to happen on New Year's Eve is not helpful.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 1999

Peter:

I'm sorry, but when 'we' the public are told to not prepare (or a three day storm) but companies are told that it is prudent to think ahead; I have to admit to having an objection. I think that if people see that companies and utilities are doing their best to be ready 'just in case', then maybe 'we' will start to work on taking that same advice.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 1999

link to article

-- Anonymous, September 29, 1999

I'm with you on this one Sean. I also agree with Peter that TranAlta is doing the right thing in contingency planning. What gets my goat is the PTB don't want me to do the same thing. I expect to see much more of this before Jan 1.......Tommy

-- Anonymous, September 29, 1999

I think this is consistant with the Three Day Storm theory-

500 workers, 3 days $15K, is 10 dollars a day per worker. That sounds reasonable. Typically your average utility worker is given a $25 dollar a day meal ticket during emergencies.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 1999