Does anyone have a list of questions to ask utilities, somewhere between "are you compliant" and really technical? I got a list of questions to ask my water company from the Y2K Water Forum, and it was very helpful...made the manager think I knew what i was asking, gave me something to gauge his response against. For example: would it be good to ask 1. How many embedded chips do you have & how are you planning to test them & when? or not? I want to come across as a relatively well informed consumer

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1998

Answers

I would also like to know what questions to ask. A group of us are on the agenda for our city commission meeting Tuesday night to ask about Y2K and utilities, and I want to make sure we don't miss anything. Our city buys the electricity from the power company and then distributes/sells it to the city residents. Also, what was the Water Forum that you wrote about? I know our well/tower system is controlled by a telemetry of sorts. Any help would be appreciated.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1998

Gary North has a list of suggested questions at...http://www.garynorth/y2k/detail_.cfm/2007

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1998

It was mentioned that:

"Gary North has a list of suggested questions at...http://www.garynorth/y2k/detail_.cfm/2007"

The address is:

http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/2007

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1998

Here is the Y2K Water Forums page: they have an email list and an online forum http://parousie.com/year2000/water/forums/forums.htm

And thanks to everyone who sent me questions to ask!

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1998

Tell you what - if someone develops (or by group concensus) a good, comprehensive list of questions for the average consumer to ask, I'll post it on the euy2k.com website (with proper attribution, of course). Are you willing to act as the group secretary, ML, and compile the info?

-- Anonymous, August 05, 1998

Rick asked if I'd be "secretary" and compile a list...sure. Be happy to. Dave Jones and several others sent me Gary North's list, which are great but not directly related to utilities... I plan to ask them, but, would really like some more direct questions like the Y2K Water questions, which were specific to the water industry and specific equipments/programs they have.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 1998

I have two sets of questionnaires (one for electric utilities; the other for water utilities) posted at my web site, http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roleigh_martin/surveys.htm

-Roleigh Martin

-- Anonymous, August 12, 1998

I would also like to see a list. My town has a Public Utility District (PUD) operated by the city. I'm contemplating posing the questions to them.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 1998

This set of questions was sent to me by someone working on the y2k project within an electricity company. Maybe it will offer some possible questions that you could ask. However, I am reasonably confident that none of the utility companies are likely to answer questions directly. Instead you are more likely to receive a legally prepared and politically correct, polite letter. Here are the questions for what its worth, good luck!

Are your company's infrastructure systems and operations Year 2000 ready? On what date will readiness be achieved? Do you have a Y2k Project Team in place? If so, how/who do we contact in regards to Y2k? How does your company plan to resolve Y2k issues affecting its infrastructure and operations, specifically those that may affect the delivery of financial services? What plans does your company have in place for Y2k readiness? Do you have test procedures in place to ensure Y2k readiness? What Year 2000 compliance STANDARD is your company applying to its systems and infrastructure? Will your company be using internal or external resources to make systems compliant? Are your business critical suppliers Y2k compliant? How will your company ensure that its current environment, once made Year 200 ready, is maintained that way? How will your company ensure that new services and infrastructure delivered from 1998 onwards will be Year 2000 readiness? Will capacity be adequate to ensure that any peak loads, which are the result of Year 2000 effects, can be met without major impact to the networks and services? Will your company financial viability be affected if it has extensive Year 2000 failures? Does your company expect to receive information from other utilities and forums about Year 2000 plans and issues? Will your company share this information? Will management systems remain functional? Will they report performance and statistics accurately, to ensure effective monitoring of service delivery? Does your company have CONTINGENCY PLANS for the Y2k transition? What are your companys priorities for contingency management? What criteria will your company use to prioritise customers if rationing of services occurs? What will recovery time be if service fail? Are you prepared to undergo a Y2k compliance audit? Do you have a Disaster Recovery and/or a Business Continuity Plan in the event of problems? Are any systems NOT Y2k compliant, if not when will they be??

-- Anonymous, September 05, 1998