SOME GOOD REPORTS ON THE GRID FROM TOM ATLEE

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From: Tom Atlee Subject: Electrical utilities Y2K forecast: Partly cloudy with a chance of tornadoes

Just because the grid is so important and there's so much info that it is going to be all right, I thought I'd toss these in for balance... -- tom

PS: Marcello or I will still be sending you stuff like this irregularly when others send them to us as part of the web-based Y2K information network, and hope you'll pass them on. Don't worry about me losing retreat time; I don't surf the web for items like this; they just arrive and I pass them on, so it only takes a few minutes. (Excuses, excuses, Tom!! You just can't let go, can you!)

_ _ _ _

First this, from the GAO via Wild2K.com:

Power firms face Y2K woes GAO report says nearly half of electric utilities will miss preparation deadline Countdown to Y2K April 16, 1999: 3:39 p.m. ET

http://www.cnnfn.com/digitaljam/9904/16/y2k_electricity/

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The nation's electric power utilities have completed only 44 percent of Year 2000-related preparedness and testing, giving rise to concerns about the possibility of widespread power failures as the new year approaches, according to a government report.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) also reported that 46 of the participating organizations said they don't expect to be Y2K ready by the industry's June target date.

Furthermore, 16 percent of those organizations said they don't expect to be Y2K-compliant until the fourth quarter of 1999.

The Y2K problem refers to problems computers may face during the transition from 1999 to 2000 because many computers are programmed to recognize only the last two digits of the year. Computers may recognize 2000 as 1900 or may cease to function altogether.

Among the concerns is that many people may face outages in key services, such as electricity and water supply.

Noting that the U.S. electric power supply industry is comprised of about 3,200 electric utilities, the GAO expressed concern about the industry's efforts to make their systems Y2K ready.

"While the electric power industry has reported that it has made substantial progress in making its equipment and systems ready to continue operations in the year 2000, significant risks remain," the report said.

Because power utilities are dependent on embedded computer control systems -- that is, chips that are built into a computer's architecture and can't be replaced with different chips - the industry is particularly susceptible to Y2K-related failures.

"All phases of operations in the electric power industry, from generation to distribution, use control systems and equipment that are subject to Year 2000 failures," the GAO report said. "The industry's analysis of its embedded systems has shown that the Year 2000 problem places the nation's electric power systems at risk."

Last month, a special committee established by the Clinton administration found that 11 of the 24 major federal agencies, including the Energy Department, missed the government's March 31 deadline for making their mission-critical systems Y2K compliant. _ _ _ _ _ _

And now thanks to Sheri Nakken and Wild2K for this one.

>From Gary North's Y2K Links and Forums:

http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/4427

Category: Power_Grid Date: 1999-04-16 07:32:55 Subject: The U.S. Army's Sobering Presentation on the Power Grid

Comment: This slide presentation is a calm assessment of the most important threat facing North America: the shutdown of the power grid. The report is not a whitewash. It acknowledges the existence of serious problems. On slide 21, we read that the failures will be multiple and geographically dispersed.

Slide 22 warns that the industry's response assumes that the workarounds will be rapid. The slide raises this question: What if the fixes take weeks? The industry assumes that the failures can be isolated and fixed. But this assumes that most systems will be reliable, i.e., that y2k will inflict minimal damage. This assumption may be incorrect.

What we need now is public education and contingency planning. This contingency planning must be coordinated: local, state, and national governments as well as local organizations and industry. Here endeth the lesson: slide 26...

This slide presentation argues that there is a major threat facing us: the failure of the grid for weeks. It says that to prevent panic, the public must be told the truth and leaders must lead by allocating government resources to preparations for widespread social disruptions in the face of power failures. But nothing like this is being done, and we are running out of time.

http://www.army.mil/army-y2k/y2kelectric90224/sld001.htm

Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * Oakland, CA http://www.co-intelligence.org * http://www.co-intelligence.org/Y2K.html



-- Jean Wasp (jean@sonic.net), April 21, 1999


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