While 'channel surfing' last evening, I ran across a local all news channel. It seems that Orlando Utilities and Florida Power & Light are planning to join the 4/9 testing. The last thing said was "Both utilities suggest people have extra food, water, cash, and alternative lighting on hand". I'll admit I didn't see the entire story, but I got the impression that they were admitting that they might not pass the test. Comments?

-- Flagirl (Filterlady@aol.com), March 14, 1999

Answers

I'm in Orlando, so I'm very interested in this! :)

I didn't see the story on TV.......the last I've seen is that the City of Orlando claimed to have "tested" everything a couple weeks ago and that they "are very pleased" with the results.

If you hear anything more about Orlando Utilities, please post it!

-- Sheila (sross@bconnex.net), March 14, 1999.

Flagirl,

Based on my experience , this would appear to be an integrated test. Multiple servvice providers simulating the final scenario. Usually in these type of test, only companies that have already handled their internal prolems can participate. I think the fact that they have warned the public to prepare for an interruption is a good sign actually. To me it means they have there eyes wide open going in and are properly managing customer expectations.

No to adress your question. The statement they made indicate that they expect there to be a distinct possibility that there will be a power outage during this test. Does it represent a failure of the test, not necessarily. It depends on your point of view the purpose of the test is to find potential problems going into the year 2000. If the power fails, the problem is fixed and the testing resumes. From the testers point of view this is actually a success. That one less problem they will have to deal with at the time, confidence levels go up.

What you really want to keep an eye out for is if your utility gets "dropped from the test" . That would mean the other companies, couldnt continue testing due to a number of irresolvable problems with your utility and booted them out so the test can continue. This situation, would be rated as a failure. Bottom line is, intermittent failures during the test are a good sign, Premature ending of the test is a bad sign. Also be sure to phone your service utility after the test completion and get a written set of testing reults. A copy of thier filing to the government (Q-10 statement) is usaully usable to asses the real risks remaining after the test.

nyc

-- nyc (nycnyc@hotmail.com), March 14, 1999.

nyc,

How can you find out if a utility gets "dropped from the test"?

I am also in Florida and FPL is my utility company. They are also working to update the nuclear plant here. Are nuclear plants included in this 4/9 test? If FPL should be "dropped," could it be because the nuc plant is not ready?

Also, if a utility is "dropped," can a consumer request the specifics from the company?

Should we be unplugging computers, TVs (anything else?) on 4/9?

THANKS!

-- Joan Asaro (JA4you@aol.com), March 14, 1999.

DAMMIT!!

This is NOT a test. This is a DRILL. It is a TRAINING EXERCISE. It has nothing to do with making or testing y2k fixes. The purpose of this DRILL is to *practice* responses to degradation in the *backup communications system*. It's so everyone will no where to be and what to do in case of actual communications problems at rollover.

Has anyone here ever gone through a school fire drill? Was there a real fire? Were they testing how fire-resistent the facilities were? Come on, everyone knew there wasn't any fire. We were supposed to learn what to do so we'd be prepared in case of a real fire. The NERC drill is exactly the same thing.

You don't pass or fail a DRILL! If power should have problems for some reason related to the selected dates (all those 9's), those problems will have NOTHING TO DO with the drill taking place on those same dates.

Please read Chris's NERC thread below for a more complete explanation. And Please quite spreading misinformation about the purpose of this exercise!

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), March 14, 1999.

Flagirl,

For further clarification of the purpose of this drill, see the thread at

NERC

There are so many new threads on the Yourdon board every day, it is hard to keep track of them all. Good luck with your preparations.

-- Wanda (lonevoice@mailexcite.com), March 14, 1999.

Flint,

My apologies here, I stand corrected. I responded too quickly to this post without making the connection. My resonse is geared to an integrated test and not a drill. There are many fundamental differences, too lengthy to go into here. So to try to correct any misinformation I may have propagated. There probably will not be any software or hardware remdiation going on during this test. And your right in saying there is no pass or fail.

That being said, I would also like to add that I do not agree with your take on outages and system failures during the test not being indetified and fixed after the test. You use the anology of a school file drill. Now if during a school fire drill some sytem failed, say the alarm system or an electonic keyed entry system or an emergency ligthing system , Wouldnt the school repair it after the drill?

I still think it is important too for the residents of the areas affected to to follow up with their local utilities for explantaions and plans of actions for remiying any failures they them selves may personally have experienced and plan accordingly. After all arent they the witnesses to the test?

Once again, I apologize for any misinformation I may have spread here.

nyc

P.S you made a statement concerning dates in your reponse, I cant see it from here right now , but it dealt with the the idea that testing a system on a certain set of dates does not relate with how that system will respond to those dates in the future. I dont understand exactly what your saying here, can you elaborate please.

-- nyc (nycnyc@hotmail.com), March 14, 1999.

There was an excellent article in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel about 2 weeks ago about Floridia utilities including Florida Power, Orlando and Tallahassee. The report did not look good. For example Tallahassee was 25 per cent complete with a completion date of 6/30/99, Orlando was 40 per cent complete with a completion date of 6/30/99 and Florida power was 57 per cent complete with a completion date of 9/30/99. How will the State Capitol do 75% in 6 months? See http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg-id=0009YbA . At least in Florida the weather will not be below zero when the power goes off.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg/tcl?msg- id=0009YbA"

-- Steve (stunned@notstupid.com), March 14, 1999.

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If this has already been discussed, I missed it, so here's the question. Why was 4-9-99, a well-known wild card date for y2k pundits, selected as the drill date? It can't be coincidental, because the drill date for the fall of this year falls on the other '99 wild card date, 9-9-99. If there is even a slight possibility of real problems occurring on those dates, why would the NERC want to schedule communications drills at the same time? A paranoid person would say they want to be able to claim a glitch in the drill caused whatever problems arose (even though the drill should have no effect on their operations, since it's only a communications drill). Any other explanations, or is it appropriate to be paranoid? And since a Florida utility is suggesting customers take precautions on the drill date (did I read you right?), does this mean everyone everywhere should take precautions on 4-9-99?

-- Bill Byars (billbyars@softwaresmith.com), March 14, 1999.

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nyc,

I'm not Flint, but what he said was:

"If power should have problems for some reason related to the selected dates (all those 9's), those problems will have NOTHING TO DO with the drill taking place on those same dates."

Again, if there should be a power problem on 4/9, that problem has nothing -- zero, nada, zip -- to do with the drill. The DRILL is a communications exercise. The drill has nothing to do with making power.

-- De (dealton@concentric.net), March 14, 1999.

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The next day NERC will announce that eveyone passed the "test" with minor problems. Spin on.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), March 14, 1999.

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The drill is a pure communication exercise. However, on Channel 4 WYFF about a week ago, the spokesman for Duke Power (the Carolinas are drilling too) said "This is to establish our communication contingency plan. We have heard the rumor that we expect the computers to go down. There's little possibility of that but, if they do (laughter) we'll have a full crew on board to take care of that." Make of it what you will. All of the people from Duke that know say it is pure communication, nothing else except a large pain in the butt.

-- Lobo (Hiding@woods.com), March 14, 1999.

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Ok, so it's a drill. Why, then, would they say to have food, water, cash, etc on hand before that day? I'm no computer whiz, just a middle aged mom who happens to own a small business. I'll let all you 'computer nerds'(no offense inteded) explain that to me.

-- Flagirl (Filterlady@aol.com), March 15, 1999.

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Speaking of power companies, I heard on the news yesterday that Three Mile Island was sold.

-- Dave (dave22@concentric.net), March 15, 1999.

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Flagirl

FL Power & Light Go there for information. Since there is no hardcopy of the "report" you are speaking of, you can't say that they (FPL) actually did tell everyone to have provisions ready before the drill. That sounds wrong.

Look up the power company and ask them to verify what you suspect. THEN come back here to post correct info.

Mr. K

-- Mr. Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@MotivatedSeller.com), March 15, 1999.

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Flagirl,

Ive finally gotten around to reading what this test is all about. I retract my entire position on this. By industry standards today, this is NOT a Y2k test. I am totally baffled as to why the term Y2k is being used here. Any results from this test will be no indication of how your power systems will function in the year 2000. What they seem to be doing from what I can tell is disabling thier standard communication channels and using alternative ones. An interesting test, and it could cause loss of power conceivably, but its not directly realted to he year 2000 issues. Might be good to test power failure contingency plans tho.

There is a statement tho on one of these documents about April 9 1999 being a year 2000 critical date. The dates APril 9 and septmeber 9 1999 were under evaluation by our staff several years ago, these dates were dropped as being statistically insignificant from a year 2000 testing point of view. I agreed at the time and I still do. Now from an embedded processing point of view, which is important to power companies , but wasnt to us, there may be another issue, Flint seems to be the expert on these so maybe he can adress that further.

I hope this helps and once again I apologize for the confusion I may have caused here.

nyc

-- nyc (nycnyc@hotmail.com), March 15, 1999.

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The 'alternate communication system" they are using for this drill is the telephone.

Some test - and the results are:

"Yes, on Apr 9, 1999 the telephones worked. Therefore, we will have power next year."

....With only local and intermittent power shortages."

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 15, 1999.

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Robert,

At this point, I dont feel it helps speculating on what they will say or will not say. The sheer disucssion of this test on the board is what confused me in the first place, some how giving it validity as some form of Y2k test. Its not, lets just say so in unison and move on, instead of dwelling. If the topic comes up just state the fact simply on move on.

just my opinion,

nyc

-- nyc (nycnyc@hotmail.com), March 15, 1999.

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Does anyone remember the story from January in the Ft. Lauderdale rag about FPL execs buying generators and using company employees to install them at their mansions? ROFLMAO. FPL is one of the most incompetent power companies in the U.S. I put them in the same category as GTE, believe that their Y2K prep is complete and done correctly only if you have lights the week of January 3, 2000.

-- John Galt (jgaltfla@hotmail.com), March 15, 1999.

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