How do i find out if utilitie companies in my area have complied or if not what are their plans?

-- danny walton (roadkill_73@hotmail.com), November 19, 1998

Answers

Good luck 8-)

Tried to get info about local power companies progress and not much luck. I did get a letter sent signed by the President of the company on company letterhead. The info was very basic and not revealing at all. When I followed up with an email thanking him for the letter but asking for answers on specific questions, the communication stopped. I sent two follow up emails requesting the answers to my questions, but he will not reply to me.

I believe that beyond the "lawyer approved" generic feel good letter he sent to me, that he will say no more. I don't think their lawyers will allow him to say any more to me.

Not only that, but my boss somehow got word that the manager of the power company wanted to know why I wanted more answers. Seems that the president of the power company phoned the head of the Y2K team at the company where I work to ask what I was up to. My request for information was perfectly clear that I was asking as a concerned resident only, and had nothing to do with the company I work for.

I could not help but feel that the call to the company I work for was his way of telling me to back off.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), November 19, 1998.

Danny,

One way is to check the companies 10K or 10Q statement. The SEC has mandated that all publicly (sp?) traded companies provide Y2K info in their statements to investors. If your utility is traded on the stock market, you should be able to find some information. (Even though it's written by lawyers..........) But you if you read carefully, you can glean real info from them.

For example - Bell Atlantic states that 90% of their deployed Network Elements (the equipment that switches calls) were originnaly assessed as compliant. What this says to me is that when they first did their assessment, 90% passed. Now, something less than that would pass. So be careful how you read their statements.

One way I've found to get data on utilities is to go to yahoo!finance. http://biz.yahoo.com/p/industries.html This page has a listing of all industries. From there you can select electric utilites, water utilities, or any other industry you might be interested in - telecommunications for instance.

If the company is not publicly traded or gov't owned, you're out of luck. ...but see an earlier thread on obtaining info from your elected officials.

Good Luck!

-- Gail (nother@nube.com), November 19, 1998.

Danny,

Sorry - I forgot to tell you how to get to the 10Q or 10K once you find your company.........

Click on the Industry, for instance - Electric Utility.

Then click on your company - that will bring you to the Profile page.

Then click on SEC filings. You will come to a screen with an excerpt of their most recent 10Q. The y2k stuff may be here - do an "edit/find in page". If it's not there, click on Edgar Online, and then select the most recent 10Q or 10K.

Any statement filed after October (maybe September) is required to provide this info.

-- Gail (nother@nube.com), November 19, 1998.

Here's a direct link to research on electric power utilities. There is an SEC filing for most of the companies listed.

http://biz.yahoo.com/research/indgrp/util_elec_pwr.html

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), November 20, 1998.