The Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel had a fairly good article in yesterdays paper. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Most of what they have printed has been garbage. You can see the story here

Jan. 1, 2000: Lights Out?

They had a sidebar that is not in the internet edition...

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How ready are we?

Here's how far along some of the states biggest utilities are in fixing and testing their computer systems for the year 2000, and when they expect to be done. Figures are from January.

Utility	% completed	Comp date
FPL	78%	10/99
Florida Power group	57%	9/30/99
Gulf Power	55%	6/1/99
Florida Public Utilities Co.	80%	7/1/99
Tampa Electric	85%	9/1/99
Gainsville Regional Utilities	45%	6/30/99
Lakeland Electric and Water	16%	6/1/99
Orlando Utilities Commission	40%	6/30/99
Seminole Electric	50%	6/1/99
City of Tallahassee	25%	6/30/99

My big question, is how can some of these companies be 16%, 25% and 40% completed, but have "completion dates" earlier then companies that are 78% and 85% done? I realize they may have smaller systems to remediate, but it looks pretty fishy to me.....

-- Online2Much (ready_for)y2k@mindspring.com), March 01, 1999

Answers

As a resident, not too far north of you, I have some important questions that I am sure you too have unresolved:

1. Why, per some friends at FPL and a caller recently on Art Bell (no, I'm not saying that is an authoritative source by any means), is there some persistent evidence that FPL execs have been purchasing large capacity generators and using FPL technicians to install them at their mansions?

2. My last figures are from a MIS insider at FPL in December; they were only 48% complete on the INVENTORY, not remediation of their systems..could it be the numbers are a little, pardon the pun, "juiced"???

3. Why is FPL's Y2K budget for remediation higher than last year's? Does this mean they can hire and complete twice the numbers and amount of work necessary in less time? AND include testing with the other networks within the state and region?

No one, in authority, from FPL will ever answer those questions. Thank god though that I live in part of the country that will not be as severely impacted by weather on Jan. 1, 2000.

-- John Galt (jgaltfla@hotmail.com), March 01, 1999.

Don't have specifics in regard to Florida. But take my power company, Virginia Power:

Status

They list as 93% complete, but don't expect full completion until 10/99. This is due to final remediation scheduled for one plant during a scheduled outage for regular maintenance in October.

Hoffmeister

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), March 01, 1999.

Hoffmeister: According to someone who attended a y2k discussion meeting in an eastern Virginia county last week, a representative or an employee of Virginia Power told those at the meeting to expect anywhere from three weeks to five months of intermittent power outages here in the Old Dominion. Personally I'm not counting on getting my power from ol' Vepco.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), March 01, 1999.

<< is there some persistent evidence that FPL execs have been purchasing large capacity generators and using FPL technicians to install them at their mansions.>>

I have rear this "urban myth" half a dozen times in the last three months on web sites.

Please explain exactly what the "persistent evidence" IS you are refering to? I would really like to know.

-- John Gardner (Gardner@aol.com), March 01, 1999.

Online2Much,

>how can some of these companies be 16%, 25% and 40% completed, but have "completion dates" earlier then companies that are 78% and 85% done?

How? -- It is well-established by now that companies discover during their Y2k work that more work has to be done than they had anticipated or forecast when they first began. IOW, the more they've completed, the more they see that's uncompleted. That's how. (I want to put a smiley here, but this phenomenon is too serious to treat lightly.)

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), March 02, 1999.

Good questions all - and the real answer might be = they don't know. They're just guessing. My opinion of the 16% - finishing early screnario is => they don't know they are facing yet.

The 85% and not finishing until September 1 -> too conservative, they will likely actually be done a little earlier, but aren't sure yet and so aren't moving up the date.

The 78% finishing in October - might get done, will probably miss several vital areas becasue they don't have enough time to test enough areas. It seems too rushed a schedule, too late finishing in the year to allow for problems that the other guys will have time to fix..

the 57% - finishing last of September - will have real problems there most likely. Same as above, but too late finshing to even allow any schedule slip. Nor any realistic testing - that's what will likely get skipped in the panic to finish. Causes too many extra errors.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 02, 1999.

Follow up -

Steven Tomczak posted a link at the euy2k board to the Florida Public Service Commission that the original data was obtained from. It also has data for Florida's Gas and Telephone industries. You will need Acrobat Reader to access the information.

-- Online2Much (ready_for_y2k@mindspring.com), March 02, 1999.

Ummm, sure, Cody. Was this a public meeting?

Seriously, and not getting into the "whistleblower" scenario, but if it was a public meeting, and the rep was speaking for the company, could I get the name? Or something to go on?

From the purely IS side, I know 4 people working there, on their SAP project, and they are in good shape.

I also know two people who work in the state government, and have seen briefings on Va Power.

So, unless you have more than just unattributed rumours, I'll go with the information I have, thanks all the same.

Hoffmeister

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), March 02, 1999.