We have several facilities in Mexico and are struggling to find information about the readiness of electricity in Mexico (in particular the Reynosa, Mexicali, and Juarez areas). So far we have not gotten any response to our inquiries. Is anyone having any better luck? Any general status information, words of wisdom or other approaches you could share? Is Mexico actively working on resolving Year 2000 issues? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1998

Answers

The electric industry in Mexico is a quasi-governmental operation. The Mexican government recently put up a Y2k webpage regarding the electric industry in Mexico. My espanol is a bit rusty, so I'll leave the interpretation to you and/or your associates.

http://www.cfe.gob.mx/a2000/boletin.htm

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1998

I forgot to mention - there's a variety of graphs and other information on the site. Go to the 'root' Y2k directory on the website:

http://www.cfe.gob.mx/a2000/

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1998

Joan, there is some information on American utilities which supply power to sections of Mexico at:

http://www.ferc.fed.us/oge/hydro_electric/elpasoelectriccooa96-200.htm

A search for "Mexico" at the FERC site:

http://www.ferc.fed.us/query.htm

will also yield several more documents, but I don't know if there will be anything applicable to your situation. Can't hurt to look, though. Good luck!

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1998

Joan, I forgot to give you the link to "The Utility Connection". It's at:

http://www.magicnet.net/~metzler/index.html

From their home page - "The Utility Connection provides links to 2,864 electric, gas, water and wastewater utilities, utility associations, organizations, news, magazines, utility financial resources, and related state & federal regulatory and information sites."

Link c. on their index is: "c.Comision Reguladora de Energia Mexico, regulation of power generation and natural gas transportation and distribution systems." There's an English version of the site and an "info" e-mail address.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1998

For those of you with rusty spanish, here is a translation of the breakdown of the status of the remediation progress by the Mexican Federal Electricity Center (CFE) as reported in their website provided by Rick Cowles:

Diagnsstico de magnitud y complejidad de problematica en la CFE (Evaluation of magnitude and complexity of problem) 100% Clasificacisn de problematicas por criticidad y tipo (Clasification of problems by type and importance, i.e. critical systems identification) 100%. Certificacisn de proveedores (Vendors' certification) 100% Planes de trabajo por area (work (remediation) planning by area) 100% Especificacisn de la metodologma y costeo para la atencisn del proyecto (Methodology and costs specs of project) 100%.

Desarrollo de solucisn (Remediation implementation) 55%

Planes de contingencia (Contingency planning) 100% Pruebas y simulaciones (testing and simulation) 75%

Evaluacisn de resultados (results evaluation) 65%

Pruebas de contingencia (contingency testing) 50%

************

I noticed that their remediation implementation is claimed to be at 55% yet their testing and simulation is at 75%. Not sure how these two figures reconcile.

Also of note is the fact that, in their website, the CFE claims that it may be able to be in a position to guaranty no interruption of service given their pace of addressing the problem. Pretty bold statement - even if it is conditional !!!

-- Anonymous, December 24, 1998

Here's one more site in Mexico "National Commission for Year 2000 Conversions" http://www.y2k.gob.mx

Here's what the Mexican delegate had to say at the recent UN meeting:

>Across Mexico, electricity is supplied by one of two publicly-owned >companies. At present there is a region that interconnects a part >of the Western United States with Baja California in Mexico. There >are real-time contracts that allow either country to cover energy >deficits arising in its neighbor, which applies mainly in the >Tijuana - SanDiego area. Mexico's National Center for Electricity >Control has established coordination with the USA's Western Systems >Coordinating Council and is sharing information with US electric >companies.

Overall, the Mexican report to the UN was informationless. It went on and on about committees being formed and sub-committees and steering committees. I just hope all those committees get something concrete done.

The UN report in it's entirety is available at: http://www.ispo.cec.be/y2keuro/src/yearbody.htm

-- Anonymous, December 27, 1998