AEP Tests Readiness at Generating Plants

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From http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/990520/oh_aep_y2k_1.html

Thursday May 20, 5:03 pm Eastern Time

Company Press Release

SOURCE: American Electric Power

AEP Tests Readiness at Generating Plants

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Main control systems at 33 generating units owned by American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP - news) have been determined to be Year 2000 ready. The main control systems at the remaining 14 units are in various stages of remediation and testing and will be ready by June 30.

Engineers started Y2K testing in October on primary control systems at AEP's coal-fired plants. The control systems govern combustion and emissions cleaning processes and were tested without incident at the following plants:

Testing involved setting control systems' clocks for various conditions and time transitions and then observing their operations. Time transitions included the jump from Dec. 31, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2000; leap year date testing after Jan. 1 and jumps in succeeding years in the next decade. The systems successfully performed all date transitions.

``There were no guarantees, but in the end, everything worked the way it was supposed to work,'' said Don Buchmueller, Information Technology project lead. ``If these had been actual situations, there would have been no loss of generation.''

A comprehensive system inventory and identification procedure was performed on the generating units. Testing for date, time, conditions and date transitions were successfully completed. Two units still operate with the date set for 2000 to continue to check for problems.

``Testing at the plants demonstrates the Y2K readiness process we have put in place at all of the fossil and hydro facilities is working,'' said Buchmueller.

``The inventory, upgrading and testing of control and related systems have been the responsibility of the plant personnel, with support from the Power Generation engineering group. They are succeeding in their efforts,'' he said.

Not all generating units use digital control systems that need to be checked for Y2K-sensitive dates. Seven units with analog controls can be manually operated and are not impacted by Y2K. Additionally, upgrades made to control systems at 12 other units require no additional testing due to their configurations.

Minor system upgrades recommended after initial testing at the plants will be performed by June 1.

AEP is working towards having its remaining mission-critical and high- priority systems ready for the millennium by June 30 to meet corporate goals and the target date recommended by the North American Electric Reliability Council. NERC, an independent group that works with electric utilities to ensure electricity reliability, was requested by the U.S. Department of Energy to monitor electric utilities' Y2K readiness.

Y2K refers to disruptions that could occur if computer systems cannot distinguish between the years 1900 and 2000. In order to save space, earlier computers were programmed to read only the last two digits of a date, such as ``99'' for 1999. When the calendar changes to 2000, computer systems may believe it is 1900 and malfunction or even shut down.

AEP, a global energy company, is one of the United States' largest investor-owned utilities, providing energy to 3 million customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. AEP has holdings in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Australia. Wholly owned subsidiaries provide power engineering, energy consulting and energy management services around the world. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio. On Dec. 22, 1997, AEP announced a definitive merger agreement for a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction with Central and South West Corp., a public utility holding company based in Dallas.

News releases and other information about AEP can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.aep.com.

This is a Year 2000 readiness disclosure. This material is provided to help you understand the Y2K issue and AEP's response to it. It is not intended as a specific representation or warranty with respect to AEP's Y2K readiness.

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999

Answers

Hoff .... What if the trains can't bring the coal in sufficient quanities ? And the distribution systems down the line ? Solar flares knocking out transformers, substations ? Sounds like 50% had no problems to start with , and/or, needed little remediation. Now , will the other 95% be ready , without problems/delays ??? Thanks for the post. Eagle

-- Hal Walker (e999eagle@freewwweb.com), May 20, 1999.
Did I miss the memo on solar flares?

Regards,

-- Mr. Decker (kcdecker@worldnet.att.net), May 20, 1999.

The power companies stock coal in response to any perceived threat to transportation - even bad long range weather forecasts. Coal supply is not going to be a worry for some time, not with testimony before Congress about possible train problems and so on. Watched them do it for years.

Also, a number of units are being scheduled to come down for fixes at the tail of the year. They don't stop accepting coal (well not usually, can only remember 1 or 2 such instances in 17 years) while they are down, they just stockpile it. Long term coal contracts are designed to deliver the average used by a plant in a year - but they ALWAYS want more than they contracted for. Only times I have seen exceptions to that, have been when coal dropped in quality suddenly.

Plant operator at Paradise got a bit upset with another coal company one day, and told me about it. Seems he started the conveyor belt from their stockpile, and the furnace temperature started going DOWN! Took him a few minutes to figure out what was going on - as he put it "There would be all kinds of H**L to pay if I put out the fire with their muddy S**T". Pit where they were loading was full of fire clay and water - caused all kinds of trouble until they got out of the problem area. Now they did not want any more of that kind of coal, not any more at all.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), May 20, 1999.

These guys are pretty slick. Notice that these Main Control Systems are only one of the mission critical and high -priority systems that need to be remediated. If this is their best example then they are in a world of trouble.

snip - Main control systems at 33 generating units owned by American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP - news) have been determined to be Year 2000 ready. The main control systems at the remaining 14 units are in various stages of remediation and testing and will be ready by June 30.

Ok. Now later in the same blurb this is quietly inserted.

snip AEP is working towards having its remaining mission-critical and high- priority systems ready for the millennium by June 30 to meet corporate goals and the target date recommended by the North American Electric Reliability Council. NERC, an independent group that works with electric utilities to ensure electricity reliability, was requested by the U.S. Department of Energy to monitor electric utilities' Y2K readiness.

I wonder how many more of these systems there are and I wonder at the status of these systems. I do not like to be deliberately misled by artfully crafted press releases. How many mission critical systems? The status of each system in each plant?

"Working towards" Oh, great. Hoff, please stop posting such depressing stuff.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), May 20, 1999.

Could someone please post the link to information on solar flares? Mr. Decker has been posting without all relevant information. Thanks

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), May 21, 1999.
http://dxlc.com/solar/

Now he can watch it for himself

-- unspun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 21, 1999.

http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/archive/1996/dom/960909/space. html

http://www.sel.noaa.gov/info/Cycle23.html

http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/162

-- unspun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 21, 1999.

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