Introduction

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Just an introduction. I'm CP&Ls' Year 2000 Compliance Project manager. We've been working at this since 1994, and started working on the desk top and embedded systems problems in the fall. We have most of our "core business applications" converted and implemented with about half-dozen left to implement during 1998. In the other areas, we are in conducting an impact assessment that will be completed by the end of the month.

-- Anonymous, March 16, 1998

Answers

Introduction: I am the Sacramento Municipal Utility District's Year 2000 Project Coordinator. I believe that our real exposure is in the area of real time, miscellaneous equipment, embedded controls, etc. Sure the legacy stuff needs to be addressed, but the COBOLers have been modifying, testing, and upgrading their apps for years.

I am currently trying to define full testing procedures for EMS/SCADA, Generation DCS, and other areas where "cradle to grave" change methodologies may not be as mature. Any information (web sites, etc.) would be appreciated.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 1998


An Introduction. I'm Kim Smith and I an contracted to assist Western Power (Australia) in their Year 2000 effort. My role since June/July 1997 was to help our regional division with their embedded and IT systems inventory and risk assessment. Since, I have conducted inventories in three power station, one minor two major (gas turbine and fossil fuel) also in distribution areas.

Our legacy systems are well on the way to remediation, some are complete, some are in production areas, others are still being tested whilst others are about to be tested.

Our greatest threat comes from embedded systems and discrete devices. SCADA and DCS controls for transmission and generation control. Metering is also a worry. I don't believe that any meter will stop, they may just under/over bill the customer or currupt the existing data base. These are also due to be tested. We are on the brink of all out testing.

-- Anonymous, March 24, 1998


My name is David Toope. I am an Electrical Engineer at a Power Plant in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We are currently concluding the investigating phase of our Y2K program and will soon be moving into the testing phase. In this discussion I wish to exchange information on Y2K testing and compliance, especially in dealing with embedded controls.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 1998

I'm Debra Wright and I am the Risk Manager for the Eugene Water & Electric Board. I am also leading our utility's Year 2000 project team. Our I.S. Department has been working this issue for a couple of years and so we have a pretty good handle on the system and office automation issues. There's lots of work to be done, but it is happening. The more we learn about this work the more it looks like large scale emergency preparedness planning. Our biggest concerns are around grid stability and the potential impact of a grid failure on our system. I'm interested in information others might share about the nuts and bolts of plan preparation.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 1998

Stephen Goldstein here. I'm an information systems guy. Have been with Detroit Edison's IS organization for 30 years. Have done work for all of the business units -- generation (fossil and nuclear), T&D, and, of course, various admin orgs. At present, I am the senior analyst in the Architecture and Planning group.

Our y2k efforts are divided between IS (business systems, desktops, and LANs) and Balance-of-Company. I am on the tools team for IS and have done a bit of work for the fossil generation folks.

Business system related efforts are well underway with the first of the remediated applications now undergoing testing. Am not up-to-date on the embedded systems related effort.

Am looking forward to sharing views with other "insiders."

-- Anonymous, April 03, 1998



As an introduction of my company and myself, I am Dexter Sale, Project lead for what began as End user Systems and devolved into Embedded Systems. I am from Sierra Pacific Power in Reno, Nv and have been working on "the problem" since late 1996. Just got here and like many others We (SPPCo) are very interested in testing of out process control systems. We have Network Systems Engr. doing an inventory of all our facilities. We attempted to do an inventory with our staff but were not certain that we got everything and got virtually no response from equipment vendors.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 1998

Hi. I'm Y2K project manager for an oil refinery in South Africa. We are well into the testing/ conversion stages as well as a major IS upgrade to SAP R/3 but my biggest concern is the supply of electricity,water and railway trucks to the Refinery. On meeting with the manager of the Y2K project for the local authority's electricity department, he told me he would "keep us in mind if they foresaw any major disasters looming". They haven't finished their inventory yet...

So far we have been testing various PLCs on a test rack set up but have yet to find any date problems. As I have an IS background I am relying heavily on engineers to tell me how to test these boxes - any suggestions as to how I can assist the engineers ?

-- Anonymous, April 05, 1998


Dave thanks for putting this question out here. Intro to Anne Houck, Project Manager for Duke Energy Y2K Power Generation projects. We are completing the assessment of our Power Gen apps, devices, embedded systems etc. by the end of May 98 with some device assessments on hold for outage. Our concentration now will be on remediation (already started), supply chain mgmt, and business continuity. We plan to have completed our remediation by by June 99.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 1998

I am Dave Goeddertz, Information Systems Manager for Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. in Bismarck, ND. We completed a year 2000 assessment in January and have provided the first quarter update. We are fortunate in that we began a transition in 1993 from a Bull mainframe computer to an IBM AS/400. All of our accounting and financial applications are from JDEdwards and we are in the process of upgrading to their Y2K compliant version A7.3. We are also planning to begin implementation of our new Customer Information System on June 1. We are using a phased-in implementation and plan to be in full production on February 1, 1999.

My most pressing concern for year 2000 compliance is in the power plants and the embedded systems used there. The employees at the plants are addressing the problem but progress is slow.

-- Anonymous, April 28, 1998


My name is Cecil Jones and I am the Year 2000 Project Manager form CalEnergy. We specialize in Geothermal production of Electicity. We have started our Inventory and Assesment phase of our plants. We have been looking for some place where the industry would be sharing information on what they are learning about the Y2K issue. We will have a problem with setting up a test bed for our critical systems, and would like to know how other sites are dealing with the testing phase for Y2K verification.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 1998


Hello, my name is Christine Irving and I am our Year 2000 Vendor Manager for the Canadian oil and gas company IPL Energy Inc. We have just completed our corporate inventory and are in the process of setting up our testing strategy. I am interested in looking into joint PLC R&D and sharing information with other similar industries. IPL has scheduled their Y2K Readiness date for June 1999.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1998

Hi, I'm Jim Lynes and I'm Manager of Utility Systems's Developemt for Reedy Creek Energy Services, Inc. We are the utility company for the Walt Disney World Resort complex near Orlando Florida.

We feel our biggest risk at this point is from loss of external power and gas supply and are focusing our activities on contingency planning for these scenarios. Like the people impacted by the pager outage a couple of months ago we experienced a gas outage two weeks ago.....early unplanned Y2K contingency plan testing!

I'm sure we use many of the same vendors that you do and I would be interseted in any findings you have documented to date --- Modicon, Woodward, Trisen, Yokagawa, Valmet, GE/Harris, ESCA etc...

Jim

-- Anonymous, August 31, 1998


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