IMHO this is the story in the US as well.

from c.s.y2k (Paul Milne):

Australian Utilities Caught Lying Through Their Teeth

-- a (a@a.a), January 13, 1999

Answers

Thank you, a a@a.a for frequently bringing us Paul's elucidations. ;-) The but**ead commentary rides again! His points are too chewable for sober thought to not be displayed here:

This is happenng ALL OVER AMERICA: My comments in parenthesis

Vic Electricity Misses Y2K Deadline, By Stan Beer

Early optimism that Australia's electricity supply industry had beaten the millennium bug has bitten the dust, with revelations that Victorian suppliers have slipped behind on Y2K projects.

(Why should they have had this 'optimism' at all? If they had been told the stone cold honest truth , there would have been no room for guessing and making up optimistic pipe-dreams. The Utilities did not tell the truth. And it is not going on only in Australia.)

A number of Victorian electricity suppliers have revealed that they missed a self-imposed December deadline and that some mission-critical systems will not be fixed until midyear.

(They onlu 'just' figured that out? You mean that a month ago they could not see that they would not make the deadline and then they 'reported that? No. They did not tell the public what they neede to know.)

Energy-rich Victoria was supposed to be leading the way in the race to make Australia's electricity suppliers Y2K-compliant, with the industry's peak body boasting only last month that its members would finish all Y2K remediation and testing work by December 31, 1998.

( Look, only LAST MONTH, they were BRAGGING. Bragging that they would be done by Dec 31. They were LYING through their teeth. Or else you are naive enough to believe that thirty days ago, they were so out of touch with reality that they could not assess the fact that they were SIX MONTHS OFF SCHEDULE. The utilities are LYING through their teeth.)

Victoria's industry had given the impression that it was way ahead of its NSW counterpart, whose peak body last month admitted to being only a little more than half-way through its Y2K program.

('Gave the impression"? Gave the freakin' impression? That is precisely right. They are hiding the truth by giving impressions. And this is why you can not believe one word out of any electric utility. They have business interests FIRST and the public be damned. When it comes down to it, the public does not mean jack spit.)

However, Mr Theo van der Meulen, the Y2K co-ordinator of the Victorian Electricity Supply Industry, backtracked yesterday from his original claim, and said that the State's suppliers would now finish Y2K remediation and testing of mission critical systems by the end of July this year.

(Backtracked. No, the lyimg scumbag got caught. SEVEN MONTHS late. He did not know that thrity days ago when he was bragging about finishing Dec 31? He knew damn well he was lying through his teeth. The only other possible explanation is that he is an incompetent hack moron who can not tell where he is in remediation. Either way, there is NO way to trust these scumbags.)

"Some (of the suppliers) are saying the end of June, and others the end of July," Mr van der Meulen said yesterday. When asked why the December 31, 1998, deadline had been missed, Mr van der Meulen said: "I would say the testing has probably thrown up some problems, which is often the case."

(Bullshit. Testing did not throw them seven months off of remediating code. Unless they are so freaking incompetent that tests showed a bunch of crap they left out. And then they are merely a bunch of damn bozos.)

However, he would not guarantee that suppliers would make all their systems Y2K- compliant by the end of July, preferring to use the watered-down expression "Y2K-ready".

( Here it comes. All these jackasses claimed they would be COMPLINAT a year ago. Now they have no chance , they lie, the backtrack, they weasel and come up with meanigless bullshit like Y2K ready which means NOTHING at all)

"When I say Y2K-ready, I don't include non-mission-critical systems which are not capable of taking the lights out, such as a parts inventory system," Mr van der Meulen said.

(Whoopty-do)

"Suppliers may not have those completed if they feel they can operate successfully without them."

( So this butthead is saying that the only place he is falling behind is in non- essential areas? Oh, but he should be trusted again?)

Mr Bruce Page, the Year 2000 program director of electricity distributor Eastern Energy, confirmed yesterday that the new target completion date for the company's Y2K projects is now the end of June but the Y2K program would extend beyond the 2000 deadline.

(These incompetents have no chance of being up to speed.)

"We expected to complete our projects by the end of 1998 but the reality is that we had resourcing issues and testing problems," Mr Page said.

(BWAHAHAAHAHAHA! 'resourcing issues'. And they did not know that thirty days ago when they were still maintaining they would be done. You mean they just figured out the had 'resourcing issues'? They are lying scumbags.)

"All projects are now due to be complete by the end of June, but there's always a chance of slippage and our program will continue beyond 2000."

('Always a chance'? You mean 'an iron clad certainty'.)

Mr Page said Eastern Energy had 60 separate Y2K projects, of which about half were now completed.

( So he has half the work done. only a fraction of the overall time remaining and the hardest part of the job yet to do. And we should believe that after they are caught in their incomptence or worse, lies, that we should believe them.)

"There are only three systems that have the potential of interrupting electricity supply," he said. "The rest are backroom systems."

Of the three most mission-critical projects, two were involved with replacement of the non-compliant SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system essential to the operation of power companies.

According to Mr Page, implementation of the new SCADA system is scheduled for April.

Among other suppliers who have missed the December 31, 1998, Y2K deadline are Citipower and United Energy. Citipower's Year 2000 project manager, Mr Rob Scott, said the company was expecting the US supplier of its SCADA system, ESCA, to send someone to Australia to test the system in the next month or two.

"We haven't done any remediation work on the system yet because we've been advised that there are no issues with it," he said.
==================================================================== "They've been 'advised" ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO

Do you think for one minute that this is only going on in Australia?

ROTFLAMO ROTFLAMO

What a bunch of maroons! ohhhh no. U.S. Electric utilities are doing 'much' better. The powerless, auditless, NERC PR FLAKS said so.

ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO

http://www.afr.com.au/content/990113/inform/inform2.html
Paul Milne
If you live within five miles of a 7-11, you're toast.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. Milne, you really should drop by here and share with us those articles you find which support your position. Don't leave the YourDoneEres out!

I've been encountering stubborn denialheads in the most unlikely scary places, and sending them here; please copy & paste your 'proof'-backed posts from elsewhere to here. The nay-neighing brass are more receptive when there's a mainstream article they can wave at 'their' colleagues.

Thanks, Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, who have just been appointed leaders of a local FEMA steering (yeah, bull comparisons apply) team that HAD NEVER HEARD OF Y2K until last night, and don't want to hear any more.
:( But they will, of course ;-O

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 13, 1999.

Reply to "Lying through their teeth": I am an Aussie and yes, our utilities do break down rather frequently and they also get fixed pretty damn quick too. Unlike the Yanks who go screaming off into the night if their hair dryers or toasters don't work, we are a more resilient lot and manage to cope - it actually does get cold in our southern parts, but we don't have have people dying of hypothermia for lack of shelter or assistance. Neither are we so paranoid as to think the utilities are conspiring against us - of course they give priority to business customers - who else is going to get the rest of the infrastructure sorted out? And for the information of your erudite commentator source, we are well ahead of the US in dealing with the Y2K potential computer breakdowns in all areas except possibly the tax department (thank God for little things). Whatever happened to Yankee ingenuity? Even now, with everything working, we still barter in the bush and in the cities for trade products. So get laid back a bit and pay a visit down here, it might do wonders for your angst.

-- Larry (dr.cao@rocketmail.com), January 13, 1999.

Larry: The point of the post is that there is a lot of BS being pushed by the governments and industries of the world. We deserve the truth on this matter, nothing less. A lot of people don't understand how complicated the problem is and that large software projects are almost always late. Paul, Leska and I are afraid that very soon now, everybody is going to be doing a collective "dope slap" as they realize that we have been screwed by the captains of our ship.

-- a (a@a.a), January 13, 1999.

Hey, we've been trying to slap the dopes with pertinent info, and they just want to flyswat us & Y2K away because it doesn't fit into their already-grooved comfy categories.

Last night we presented Y2K to a group of CERT (FEMA at local level) steering committee leaders, the 'cream' of those trained & certified to work with Fire Depts in natural disasters to save their neighbors. These ppl have already prepared for earthquakes etc. They *had not heard of Y2K*. The only ppl present who had were those of us CERTs who miraculously showed up (Ashton & me by Fire Marshall's invitation) because of Y2K concerns -- most naturally prompted by the recent news that DoD & FEMA plans to call us up as the last best hope of community survival.

Did this clear documented news of imminent Activation spur interest in those very members about to be put in front of the despairing citizens? NNOOOO. They didn't want to hear it, and "solved" the Y2K problem for themselves and their wealthy, sumptuous city by relegating us to a Y2K sub-committee out of the way of their T-shirt Sale organizing.

[But others higher up have other plans to bring Y2K into the forefront]

Yes, the pondering of the latest graphic design for the T-Shirts was deemed more important than hearing about FEMA's plans to combat rioting, looting, etc involving all the yours truly. Hhhmmmm. Ashton & I have just gone up to an 8 from a 4.

Oh yeah, then we came home and listened to that electricity guy on Art Bell saying the electricity will be shut off two weeks before New Years Evil & two weeks after anyway ...

Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, who see toasters flying everywhere, not just on screensaver
Oh, and we're Milne-dead because we can't bug out, but we *can* feather our nest in paradise by our earth actions :-)

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 13, 1999.

Concur in the analysis - his comment about the SCADA failing to be remediated is very troubling because that indicates that many other network montoring programs (which the most probable failure mode of the whole power system) may be bad too.

However, he does now have six more months to fix everything - before he faces another self-imposed deadline. Now, if that final deadline could just be moved into the future as well......

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 13, 1999.

Reply to "Lying through their teeth": I am an Aussie and yes, our utilities do break down rather frequently and they also get fixed pretty damn quick too. Unlike the Yanks who go screaming off into the night if their hair dryers or toasters don't work, we are a more resilient lot and manage to cope - it actually does get cold in our southern parts, but we don't have have people dying of hypothermia for lack of shelter or assistance. Neither are we so paranoid as to think the utilities are conspiring against us - of course they give priority to business customers - who else is going to get the rest of the infrastructure sorted out? And for the information of your erudite commentator source, we are well ahead of the US in dealing with the Y2K potential computer breakdowns in all areas except possibly the tax department (thank God for little things). Whatever happened to Yankee ingenuity? Even now, with everything working, we still barter in the bush and in the cities for trade products. So get laid back a bit and pay a visit down here, it might do wonders for your angst.

Larry, you're missing the point left, right and centre. Firstly, I see no reason to believe us Aussies are any more resilient than Americans. For the most part we have identical lifestyles, except that Australia is even more urbanised than USA, and therefore the populace is caught in the web of dependencies to a greater degree. Yes, our climate does have less extremes, and this is a ddistinct bonus for our fan-hit-shit avoidance efforts. As for being "paranoid" for thinking the utilities are "conspiring" against us, the article from the fin. review plus Milne's analysis of it, make it painfully obvious that my juice supplier was being deceptive by reaffirming that they would be remediated by dec.31, when they must've been able to see that they were running late. Therefore they were being, shall we say, economical with the truth. And, so the argument goes, maybe they continue being economical with the truth. Pointing out and documenting a lie by a power company is not epistemically equivalent to spinning a William Cooper-esque grand narrative global conspiracy theory. Is anyone who ever claimed that that someone else lied immediately paranoid?

As for giving priority to business issues, Milne was suggesting that the utilities are obfuscating their difficult remediation position so as to protect their share prices and credit positions and legal liabilities etc. You misinterpreted this as refering to maintaining supply to important organisations as a priority over consumers etc, which they would of course be planning to do , ala the recent gas crisis, if they in fact retain the ability to supply at all.

And, are we really ahead of the US in dealing with all aspects of y2k? In some areas we're doing ok, in others there's an eirie silence..???

-- humptydumpty (no.6@thevillage.com), January 14, 1999.