ftp://ftp.nerc.com/pub/sys/all_updl/docs/y2k/may1999.xls

I thought the doomer crowd would have been on this like stink on shit. Telling everyone how "its all lies, damnit!" or something like that.

Are you folks burning out on "making converts"? You better watch out. News like this gets out, and your liable to lose a few nuts-o's from the bin.

-- Super Polly (Fu_Q_y2kfreaks@hotmail.com), June 21, 1999

Answers

Percentile	January	February	March	April	May
90-100%	25 (11%)	35 (15%)	53 (23%)	79 (34%)	151 (64%)
80-90%	20 (09%)	32 (14%)	56 (24%)	71 (30%)	45 (19%)
70-80%	25 (11%)	36 (15%)	53 (23%)	36 (15%)	22 (09%)
60-70%	31 (13%)	35 (15%)	22 (09%)	19 (08%)	09 (04%)
50-60%	28 (12%)	18 (08%)	15 (06%)	11 (05%)	03 (01%)
40-50%	37 (16%)	31 (13%)	13 (06%)	9 (04%)	4 (02%)
30-40%	15 (06%)	17 (07%)	9 (04%)	3 (01%)	1 (01%)
20-30%	22 (09%)	13 (06%)	10 (04%)	4 (02%)	0 (--%)
10-20%	10 (04%)	12 (05%)	3 (01%)	1 (.4%)	0 (--%)
0-10%	22 (09%)	6 (03%)	1 (.4%)	2 (01%)	0 (--%)
Counts	235	235	235	235	235

-- Super Polly (Fu_Q_y2kfreaks@hotmail.com), June 21, 1999.

"its all lies, damnit!"

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 21, 1999.

whats with all the white space? Are the moderators fucking around with shit again?

-- Super Polly (Fu_Q_y2kfreaks@hotmail.com), June 21, 1999.

No, that's your brain...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 21, 1999.

There is no reason to spin it. It speaks for itself. Maybe Ko-skin-em should spin it. Remember the old saying done by dec 31 1998 with a year for testing? This is June and at LEAST one third are not done !! The only way to SPIN this, is to buy more solar panels!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 21, 1999.

BL:

You need to make up your mind here. How can they be "done" and *still* need a "year for testing"? Are you saying they're done before they test? Are you complaining that they're halfway through their year of testing and not finished testing yet? If they were going to test all this year, would you prefer that they stop halfway through the testing and declare they're done? What are you saying?

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), June 21, 1999.

"making converts" sorry most do not have time, need to take care of ourselves now. Remember if we are wrong *so what*! you can have a wonderful time telling us, if you are wrong...

-- BiGG (supersite@acronet.net), June 21, 1999.

Listen Super Polly,

Quit playing your little white space games. Childish!

This is a last warning!

If someone was going to "censor" you on this forum, you'd be gone ya little snirt. Keep it up and the forum might just take a vote to bounce you. Hummm. What a good idea...!!!

Diane, Harrumph!

One Of The Many Forum Moderators

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 21, 1999.

Does this answer your question butthead?

Bill, Flint, We're serving you up a nice platter of crow would you like some ketchup? Read 'em and weep...and eat up...Crow is good for you.

First of all, I have extensive news media contacts from Cincinnati to Kansas City and beyond. In fact, all over. Some are more in-depth than others. It comes, I guess from working in the media and at the Presidential level on the traveling White House staff.

Now, let me say that my contacts and sources within the industry itself present a somewhat similar and grim situation as with the Oil industry. However, there are differences, that make the electrical situation slightly more hopeful in itself. More on that whole spectrum in a later post when I have the time.

Regarding the Kansas City Power & Light Company situation. I have sources that tell me a grim picture for the electrical situation in Kansas City. KCP&L is just one of the providers in that region, but it is the most prolific. KCP&L is going thru a merger and this has complicated Y2K remediation. You want to talk about Pollyana's? KCP&L's ivory castle is loaded with them. First of all, they're in denial about Y2K and they don't want to be bothered with the facts from the boys out in the field doing the work. Furthermore, if they get bad newsthey like to fire the messenger. Bad news could upset the merger and individual white collar exec's jobs. With the merger some boys in the ivory tower are gonna be let go, and no one wants to volunteer to walk the plank. Y2K remediation, suffers as a result of this power struggle. Some of the messengers have been fired. My sources would rather not follow that path. They'd rather go AWOL on 12/31/99 regardless of their being assigned to work that day. They'll be heading out of the city and for the hills of southern Missouri to their cabins on the lake that have become Y2K refuges. Now, why would they do that? Hmmmm???????? This ought to tell you something.

Guess what? These guys...I have 5 direct personal company sources on this...are reflective of sources I've encountered in other power companies across much of the middle and western parts of the USA. They all are telling similar stories regarding actions by top management. The full story is being bottled up for fear of job losses. Some wonder about their very lives and health. That's how fearful some of these folks are. They know the stakes are high and they're just the peons. Why stick their necks out? Just go with the flow till it stops. Also most do not have a clue about other situations in the industry. They really suspect that their companies are the unique exception, or that their first hand incidents (in many cases) must be unique because they never hear about it in the news. Therefore, their experiences are isolated and must not be reason to panic. Some however, as in the KC cases...have been more on the alert and realize the implications for their areas. These guys are gonna abandon ship. They just haven't told anyone in the company yet, and they won't. They simply won't show up. Their first priority is to protect and preserve their families. Do you blame them?

Now on to documented facts. There was a Power Plant explosion of an older KCP&L facility in the metro section of Kansas City. This was their Hawthorn plant, of which part of the system had already been idled for some time. Y2K remediation efforts have been ongoing. My engineer sources within that firm indicate that while the company publicly refuses to admit the blast was Y2K related, the boys in field know otherwise. Testing had been ongoing during the day and is believed to have been either a direct or indirect cause of the blast. Furthermore, embedded systems remediation is a disaster, (like with so many other power companies) these guys tell me, that their company isn't even gonna come close to actually and literally testing all the embedded systems. In fact they keep discovering new ones they didn't have on the inventory. One fellow likened the remediation program as being run by Larry, Moe and Curly. Oh boy, now that is wonderful, isn't it?

Meanwhile the boys in the KCP&L CIO department keep cranking out the positive media spin. Meanwhile the media in the KC area have not awakened to the Y2K problem with KCP&L. I'm not sure why. Of course there are very few investigative reporters in K.C. anymore. The KC Star has a few as does the CBS TV affiliate. The other TV stations investigative units are primarily oriented towards political investigations rather than business. My contacts indicate that there will likely be more focus on KCP&L and Y2K in the next 90 days. For some reason the media wants to wait this thing out. Reporters I've spoken with say that they just aren't really getting assigned to any stories with any real meat potential on Y2K. It's usually novelty or puff pieces that they get assigned to. So what has been reported?

Check out these stories from the Kansas City Star:

[NOTE: You can go to the Kansas City Star home page and go to their search engines and get a copy of the articles. They do charge however for archived stories. www.kcstar.com ]

Published on 02/18/99, Page A1 , THE KANSAS CITY STAR A 'MIRACLE' OF SURVIVAL IN BLAST THAT SHOOK CITY "Investigators today hope to get their first close look at KCP&L's Hawthorn 5 power plant, where an explosion early Wednesday rocked people awake 20 miles away, knocked nearby workers off their feet and launched flames 200 feet into the night sky."

You can go to the Kansas City Star home page and go to their search engines and get a copy of the articles. They do charge however for archived stories.

Published on 03/03/99, Page C1 , THE KANSAS CITY STAR KCP&L EVALUATES BLAST 'WE DO NOT ANTICIPATE' AN INCREASE IN BILLS AFTER DAMAGE TO POWER PLANT, OFFICIAL SAYS

Here's another one:

Published on 02/26/99, Page C1 , THE KANSAS CITY STAR KCP&L SAYS UNIT TO BE READY BY SUMMER "Hawthorn 6, a new generating unit near the Kansas City Power & Light Co. unit that exploded last week, is expected to be running in time for summer power demands."

Published on 02/23/99, Page D4 , THE KANSAS CITY STAR BOILER GROUP EMPHASIZES VIGILANCE AFTER ACCIDENTS BLASTS IN KC AND MICHIGAN PROMPT WARNING "A national group that promotes safety in the use of boilers such as the one used at Kansas City Power & Light Co.'s Hawthorn 5 plant is calling for additional vigilance after several accidents."

AND HERE WE HAVE MORE PROBLEMS PRIOR TO THE BLAST 6 MONTHS EARLIER HMMM.

Published on 08/21/98, Page C2 , THE KANSAS CITY STAR METRO DIGEST

KANSAS CITY "Releasing steam: Inspectors with Kansas City Power & Light Co. have not determined what caused a steam pipe to release an enormous amount of pressure from the Hawthorn generating station late Wednesday. Rescue workers responded to the plant at Hawthorne and River Front roads and sealed off the area. There was no fire and no injuries. Service to customers was not disrupted, said Phyllis Desbien, a KCP&L spokeswoman."

AND THE PROBLEMS GET WORSE FOR KCP&L at Kaufman stadium for the Kansas City Royals MLB team. It seems that KCP&L has been having problems Everywhere in its system. Here again we have another transformer substation problem.

Published on 06/05/99, Page D1 , THE KANSAS CITY STAR ROYALS POWERLESS TO PLAY ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS FORCE FRIDAY'S GAME TO BE POSTPONED "The Royals may have had a bad time on their recent road trip, but it didn't get any brighter Friday night at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals' lights-out offense took on a whole new meaning Friday night"

Published on 12/28/98, Page A1 , THE KANSAS CITY STAR UTILITY COMPANIES CAN OFFER OPTIMISM, BUT NO GUARANTEES "At Missouri Gas Energy, employees will be posted at regulator stations across the area at midnight on New Year's Eve next year, poised to turn valves manually if computer problems hit. Kansas City Power & Light Co. is planning to increase the stockpile of coal that powers the company's generating plants, fattening the usual 30- to 45-day surplus by 10 percent - just in case the railroads aren't running."

NOW THAT IS JUST A SAMPLING OF SOME OF KCP&L's problems. This last post was to show you the latest story on Y2K and KCP&L that I could find in the search engines for the KC Star. For more details visit the KC Star newspaper website at www.kcstar.com

BUT THAT IS NOT ALL NOT ALL BY ANY MEANS

I was alerted to this next story by relatives in the K.C. area. It is in regards to a news story that ran on the CBS TV affiliate. This was part of their investigative unit's "Call for Action" which ran a series of exposes on KCP&L and claims by a local steel manufacturing company that is complaining about KCP&L's unreliability. They claim it is costing them money and that they may have to move out. Here, read Channel 5's "Call for Action" newsletter you can see it for yourself by going to their website at www.kctv.com  click on "Call for Action" and go to the archives for May 13th edition. Here it is below:

http://www.kctv.com/ CALL FOR ACTION Internet Newsletter May 13, 1999 ------------------ TODAY'S TOPICS EXPLOSION AT HAWTHORN PLANT Y2K SCAM INTERNET SERVICE TROUBLE RECALLS NORTHLAND DEALERSHIP PROBLEMS ---------------- EXPLOSION AT HAWTHORN PLANT The GST Steel company in the northeast part of town spends millions each year for electricity to make steel wire and rods. Last year the company says it had to spend an extra half million dollars because KCPL's power to the plant was unreliable and halted production 14 times. GST also claims the utility has maintenance problems all over the city.

We obtained records GST filed with the Missouri Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities. In them, GST claims "reliability problems encompass KCPL's entire system," and "leaves in doubt," KCPL's ability to meet the needs of customers. GST says there were 26 unplanned outages at KCPL plants like this during four months of last year, and "no generating unit" operated everyday for a full month. GST claims KCPL has cut back on maintenance, spending about 12% less than it did four years ago. The steel company says KCPL "cannot be permitted to allow the reliability of its system to deteriorate."

We also learned GST claims February's explosion at the Hawthorn plant was, "the culmination of the increasingly erratic and unreliable operation of the KCPL system." The company says KCPL plans to charge it millions more for electricity because of that explosion, and that will have dire consequences. GST says the added costs, KCPL's poor maintenance, and tough competition in the steel industry have created an "emergency" and placed the steel company in a "precarious situation." GST says the problems may force it to close the plant, which employs 834 people, with a payroll of $66 million. GST asked the public service commission to stop KCPL from raising its rates and to investigate the utility's "deteriorating system."

KCPL calls the allegations unsupported speculation and innuendo. In a written statement KCPL says is "consistently ranks better than national industry averages" in the number and length of outages. The company adds: "We are confident that our record of performance speaks for itself." KCPL also says some of the power failures at the steel plant were caused by GST's equipment and problems at another plant. The company claims GST made the allegations to force it to reduce the steel company's rates; rates KCPL says are a bargain. That bargain will continue KCPL says, even if GST has to pay more because of the Hawthorn Explosion.

The staff of the public service commission says: "To date it sees no reason to conduct a special review" of KCPL's maintenance, and the commission recently decided not to investigate. The commission says GST improperly filed the complaint and if it wants the allegations investigated it should re-file the complaint. GST told us they may do just that, because they think the facts are substantial to back up the allegations."

END OF STORY MY COMMENTS RESUME:

Now the last I heard was that the company did refile the claim. They are also planning and maybe already have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against KCP&L. I'm not surebut I think it might be the very first one related to Y2K problems with an Electrical Utility Company.

NOW I'M NOT DONE YET. THERE IS MORE.

There have been a series of fires in the KCP&L system this spring. Some made the news but I've not been able to track it in anyone's files. These were in the outlying areas of the Kansas side of the metropolitan area and apparently are not part of any archives in the KC Star. I was unable to search the suburban papers as they don't have such features available. However, there was a serious substation fire, in either Olathe, or Overland Park, I can't remember which, or both in the last few months. There have also been a number of smaller transformer fires as well. My sources say that these are definitely due to Y2K testing also.

Gee, I wonder why Rick Cowles hasn't been paying any attention to this story about KCP&L??? This company is an apparent basket case, Y2K-wise.

NOW boys and girls you little pollyana's out there who don't bother with the facts you're dealing with a bonafide retired news reporter who does check the facts. I know first hand from my interviews with the boys doing the job that things are not hunky-dory in "River City". This is just the tip of the iceberg. It is NOT getting reported as it should. Why? The media is now big business. Many of the media outlets are financially tied in to those they are supposed to investigate. This is not just limited to the TV networks but also the big print media, local TV stations and of course radio stations. This is due in large part to massive deregulation of almost every industry in the nation. The media, folks, have been compromised and you pollyanas have not been paying attention to the man behind the curtain pulling the levers. You'd rather watch the screen. Fortunately, Dorothy did bring her dog, Toto, to pull back the curtain and show us Mr. Wizard.

There will be more to come in later posts on the electric industry. Meanwhile, you Bob, who posted about how wonderful Cinergy is Guess what? They're in about the same shape as KCP&L but in different ways. I'll deal more on that in a later post when I have the time.

Meanwhile, Flint and Bobhow's that Crow? Did it get done enough for you? Need a little more salt and pepper? How about some ketchup? Where's Anita when you need to rub it in her face? Well, you people will just never get it until you become some of the early fatalities in Y2K. Sad thing is that it will be too late for us to rub it in your face that "we told you so" when it comes.

-- R.C. -- a.k.a. "John Wayne" (?) :-) (racambab@mailcity.com), June 21, 1999.

-- a (a@a.a), June 21, 1999.

So why when I copied the offered url to see what the latest NERC results are, did I get growled at and some worm program start downloading on my computer? I try to take the time to check out the information for myself and not just accept what is offered. If this was some sort of joke I'd like to know. If who ever is trying to hurt someone then shame on you. And I'd like an assurance from the board managers that we are protected from sabotage. What's going on?

-- another Diane (sorry@notrust.net), June 21, 1999.

"RC" is FULL OF SHIT.

another Diane, try NERC's front door www.nerc.com then FIND YOUR OWN INFO.

I didn't put the white space in that table. I think its the forum censors pulling shitty little games to get me deleted. Just so they can say "you don't add any content"

Yeah, like half the dickhead posters here add any content.

-- Super Polly (Fu_Q_y2kfreaks@hotmail.com), June 21, 1999.

SP, keep 'em coming. I have this cloudy picture of you, but nearly have you pegged....

You better hope you haven't left any fingerprints....

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), June 21, 1999.

Hello. I am a lurker. I have been convinced that the pollyannas are wrong by their vulgar and pompous attitude. Just to let you know.

Thanks.

-- A lurker (none@none.none), June 21, 1999.

Okay - so 36% are not even 90% through, self-reporting and all. Give me, please, the original schedule for these utilities, give me their id's (so we give their customers a "heads up", and then give me the reschedule dates.

Now let me assume that some of these will complete remediation and testing before Jan 2000. How many will not?

Or would you rather assume that if 1/3 of all utilities have fialed to get ready this far, "all" will be ready next Jan? If 10% fail to remediate (self-reported) how long will their services fail? How many of the utilities that claim to be ready, or claim to be ready by Oct 1999, actually miss something, and how long will the resulting power failures last?

If 15% fail to remediate sucessfully, what will the impact be, and how long (if at all) will the economic impacts last on the rest of the country?

Please tell us which area of the country will be without power for how long - so we can tell only those guys to pull money out the local banks......since that is the effect you are worried about.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 21, 1999.

Thanks lurker but who gives a rat's butt. Oops I'm sorry maybe that was too vulgar for your sensitive eyes.

-- another lurker (some@some.some), June 21, 1999.

Flint......... I really had hope for you.

DONE = Fixing the code.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 21, 1999.

NO - not good enough.

DONE = getting enough power o enough industries, businesses, and people to maintain or improve on today's level of quality (voltage, frequency, and continous reliability) and service (accurate and timely bills sent, bills received, and payments made.)

"Fixing the code" is meaningless if the output services are not provided. It is only a little bit of the problem. A crucial part perhaps of both the problem and the solution, but only a little bit.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 21, 1999.