Interesting info from ABB from the links I provided below on Y2K tracking sites.

Center: USA / Wickliffe Automation

Automation Support Center for Business Areas: Automation Instrumentation and Control (AIC) Automation Metals and Mining (AMM) Chemical and Process Industries (CPI) Waste Water Projects Fossil Controls Division Location: USA Wickliffe, Ohio BusinessArea: AIC, CPI, AMM, Fossil Controls, Water&Wastewater

As of 12/29/99 9:30:37 PM GMT This Center had about 0 Plants and 0 Early Warning Plants that have entered the year 2000.

Analysis:

12/29/99 - 4:00PM EST We are reporting for all Wickliffe Call Centers. Five new cases were received and three cases were closed. There were two requests for Service assistance with upgrades, two requests for Technical phone assistance for upgrades, and one Technical issue which is under investigation by the R&D organization. The issue under investigation is Y2K related in that the problem was experienced after a Y2K Module Firmware However, it does not appear to be directly related to Year 2000 functionality. It appears to be a system configuration issue related to heavy loading of the communication interface. No other customer using this firmware revision have experienced this problem.

12/28/99 - 4:00PM EST Today we received 4 new cases related to Y2K in the Wickliffe call center. Two were for compliancy status of a product. Two were for logistics requests to for Y2K related materials. In summary, there were no new Y2K related problems with Infi90, Symphony, Freelance, or DCI System Six control systems.

12/27/99 - 4:00PM EST Today we received 24 new cases in the Wickliffe call center. Most of these were requests for information such as Y2K compliancy status for particular products. Other cases were requests for assistance in performing upgrades or general system maintenance. We responded to several logistics requests to expedite materials for annual maintenance activities. In summary, there were no new Y2K related problems with Infi90, Symphony, Freelance, or DCI System Six control systems. (jac)

12/27/99 - 9:00AM EST At this time, no new defects caused by the date of 1 January, 2000 have been reported by any installation supported by this center.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Answers

FactFinder,

That's great news and updating. I hope you will keep us abreast of all the problems, including those that are specific to Y2k. But I am a little concerned by what you are telling us. If I understand this correctly there are requests coming in even now for information about systems/devices being Y2k compliant. Is that it? With only a few days to go there are still some departments that are not *sure* about their own situation. What happened to all that testing business?

And what is this time business you are posting? Are you running on GMT or local or both? Because if it's GMT then I guess we start the countdown at 7:00 PM Friday night here on the east coast.

Also, I would like to direct your attention to all the utility billing departments which have been sending out thousands of bills this month with the "pay by" date listed as January 3 or 4, 1900. Even my own Bell Atlantic did this. So we have power companies and telco providers that still don't even have their billing systems fixed, and that is where they started first and spent the most time and money, as we know. Go figure.

Gordon

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Gordon - are you the Gordon of TB2000 wherein you discuss the oil industry with RC, et.al?? Do you think Rick will let us talk of things other than strictly electricity here????

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Jeanne,

No, I'm not that Gordon. I think it was probably Gordon Gecko, but his email address will be different regardless. As far as other topics, I would say no. Rick has kept this forum pretty clean for Y2k and electric utilities. I can't argue with him on that either. Things are sometimes a handfull here with just that basic area of debate.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Thanks for the update, FactFinder. ABB is an excellent source of info, obviously.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 1999

Gordon, First, thanks for the encouragement. Now to followup: "If I understand this correctly there are requests coming in even now for information about systems/devices being Y2k compliant. Is that it? With only a few days to go there are still some departments that are not *sure* about their own situation. What happened to all that testing business?"

Yep, that's it. These are the ones at the "late" end of the bell curve it appears. Thats what makes the ABB Y2K information valuable, it lets us see this kind of thing, and gives us a feel for how many people are rushing to the finish line.

The GMT times and all of the information was a cut and paste from the ABB site. ABB is international, with centers all over the world, so it appears they are reporting in GMT, with some of their centers reporting in local time. This too makes this infomration the best source I have seen for a worldwide "inside" look at Y2K problems in control systems and software and other embedded systems.

Don, you are so right. Pity all companies aren't as open as this one, although I did notice that they have removed the "front door" from www.abb.com that takes you to the detailed center reports. If I had not linked it, I wouldn't be able to get in to this front row seat.

Regards,

-- Anonymous, December 30, 1999