Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Utilities Make Preparations For New Year

Barring sabotage or natural disaster, utilities will be fully operational on Jan. 1, 2000.

Utility companies have been working to make their systems Y2K compliant for several years, and are ready for the change from 1999 to 2000. The actual change for the millennium will be Jan. 1, 2001.

Ron Easley with the South Central Electric Cooperative, and Randy Jerry, with Entergy, each say they are ready for New Year's Eve, though their crews may not be.

Both electric companies will have full crews standing by in case an emergency occurs, though neither anticipates any problems.

Easley said South Central has been sending notices to its customers with their bills letting them know what has been done to deal with Y2K.

As far as the computer systems go, Easley said, he is not worried about the date rollover. But, he added, there are circumstances out of the companies control which could result in the loss of power.

He expressed concern about someone running into a utility pole or a tree falling on the lines or an ice storm causing lines to be brought down.

The equipment, he said, has been fully tested and has passed when rolled over to Jan. 1, 2000. South Central, Easley added, also did a 9-9-99 test with no problems turning up.

The 9-9-99 test was done because 9999 is supposed to be a shut down command for many computers.

South Central, Easley said, has also tested its communications equipment to make sure workers can be contacted should something happen.

"We don't expect any problems," he said. "I'm more worried about what people may do than Y2K."

The utility business, Easley said, has to respond to emergencies and basically is looking at this as it would any other potential disaster.

"I'm more concerned about someone trying to destroy something to make headlines. We've done all we can to be prepared and feel we're ready.

"I'm confident, but we can't absolutely guarantee there will be no interruptions because we can't control the weather. But I don't anticipate any problems with Y2K."

Should an outage occur, Easley said, crews will be dispatched as quickly as possible to correct the problem and get the power back on.

Crews will be on hand throughout New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, just to be on the safe side.

Entergy was officially declared Y2K ready on June 30, 1999, according to Jerry, who said no problems are anticipated.

Still, he said, contingency plans are in place to deal with anything unexpected that may occur.

Entergy also did a 9-9-99 test, with no problems and has been working through the North American Reliable Electricity Council to make sure the company is compliant. The council, he said, oversees the electric grid in the U.S., Canada and parts of Mexico.

"I don't think any electric utility can guarantee service on 12-31-99 because of routine outages in the system," he said.

"But we've tried to put things in place to deal with anything unexpected. It's an interesting situation."

Entergy did a company-wide program for the Y2K situation, starting with an inventory of all hardware and software systems.

The company assessed its critical systems to see where any problems may occur.

Once this was done, back up plans were then put in place, just in case something was overlooked and would allow the date change to shut down the system.

Entergy also has a plan in place to deal with its third party suppliers, so if other electric companies have problems their customers can be served.

The Entergy system is designed to shut itself down if a problem occurs at other utilities.

Though the company has taken steps to by Y2K ready, there are other factors involved, such as weather, fires and disasters.

All work has been completed and tests run to make the system is Y2K compliant. In fact, Entergy spent more than $70 million on upgrades and testing.

Additionally, Entergy's nuclear plants have also been checked and all problems corrected making them Y2K ready as well.

The nuclear plants were tested under guidelines established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with the NRC doing additional testing and declaring the plants ready.

The so-called millennium bug will have little effect on Reliant Energy-Arkla Gas.

According to Margaret Preston, Arkla began preparing for Y2K in 1994.

A system-wide check and assessment was done to find where any problems may occur, and it was learned there was little date-sensitive equipment around.

Preston said most of the company's equipment is mechanical and won't be affected by the change in dates.

However, the 3 or 4 percent of computers the company does have that are date sensitive, they have been updated to be Y2K compliant.

Preston said the biggest problem would have been on the administrative side as this is where the computer systems are.

When Jan. 1, 2000 rolls around, she said, it will be business as usual, unless something completely unexpected happens.