Published Friday, August 6, 1999

Alliant Energy appeals decision of Public Service Commission Statewire

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Alliant Energy Corp. has appealed a state decision blocking the utility from charging customers for the costs of making its computers compliant with the year 2000.

The company appealed to the Public Service Commission Thursday, asking state regulators to allow the company to raise rates by about 50 cents a month per customer.

The rate hike would compensate for $12.2 million dollars it said it spent preparing for the shift to the year 2000. The changeover next Jan. 1 has raised concerns because early computer equipment recognized years by the last two digits, prompting fears that some might mistake the year 2000 for 1900, and shut down in confusion.

In its initial decision on the Alliant request earlier this week, the commission said that Alliant agreed to freeze rates for four years as part of its merger last year with two Iowa utilities.

Alliant is Wisconsin' s only major utility that has been denied permission to charge customers for making computers Y2K compliant.

In its appeal, the company argued that the merger allows one-time recovery for costs above $4.5 million. But the commission said in its report that Alliant knew as early as November 1997 that its Y2K budget was $5 million for 1998 alone.

Alliant said the commission decision will lower earnings by $7 million to $9 million.

" Who can argue that Y2K isn' t the biggest extraordinary event of our lifetime?" said Alliant spokesman David Giroux.

The North American Reliability Council announced this week that Alliant was fully prepared for the Y2K rollover. The announcement was part of a report presented to the U.S. Department of Energy on the Y2K readiness of the nation' s utilities.

Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), August 07, 1999

Answers

here's the original article from the milwaukee sentinal.Being a madisonian,it hits home. (snip) Utilities discount notion that 2000 glitch will lead to chaos Alliant downplays warning of impending unreliability By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel staff October 08, 1998 Expect some glitches when 2000 rolls around, but utilities said Wednesday their customers should have plenty of power, heat and water when the big day arrives

Utilities were responding to news in Madison the day before that the National Guard would be on standby in case providers of basic services were mired in major meltdowns of their computer systems.

One company even backed away from statements made by one of its lawyers, who had told a legislative committee that her company -- Alliant Energy Corp. of Madison -- is encouraging customers to look into alternative energy sources, including home generators, because of possible computer glitches.

"It was not meant to reflect the advice we are giving our customers," Alliant spokesman David Giroux said.

But Giroux also stressed that Alliant is very worried about the so- called Y2K problem -- especially in delivering electric power.

"Power failures are possible," he said. "Anyone who has told you they have fixed the problem -- guaranteed -- is not understanding the scope of the problem."

Utility officials across the state say there is considerable hand- wringing over the computer problem, since the electric power system relies on computers in moving electricity and utilities use computers to interconnect with each other.

But utility and municipal officials also say they have worked on the problem for at least a year and are spending millions of dollars to make sure their computers survive the problem.

The problem is a result of computers recognizing a year by its last two digits. Unless software is rewritten and certain silicon chips replaced, many computer systems could stop working when clocks move from 99 to 00.

With computers and computers chips everywhere, Giroux said, Alliant is alarmed that companies and their technical staffs might miss something. Chips embedded in cell phones, for example, have to be checked.

And, he stressed, the problems go beyond fixes made by utilities.

For example, Alliant relies on 60 different telephone companies -- with their own year 2000 problems -- for everything from pagers to local telephone service so it can sell power throughout parts of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.

Wisconsin Public Service Commission Chairman Joe Mettner said he believes all major Wisconsin utilities are seriously tackling the problem.

Mettner's only concern: Some smaller water utilities, he said, have not grasped the severity of the problem.

"But still there are no certainties come 1999," he said.

To get ready, Wisconsin Electric Power Co. is spending $30 million -- more than any other utility in Wisconsin -- to upgrade its computer system.

"We have been working on this problem since 1995," said spokesman Rick White.

Officials at Wisconsin Gas Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay and the City of Milwaukee all said they are working on the problem and hope to have their work done long before 2000 comes around.

Ameritech Corp., the Baby Bell that provides local phone service in parts of Wisconsin and four other states, is spending $250 million over five years on the problem, spokesman Frank Mitchell said.

Three hundred employees are rewriting nearly 30% of all the code in Ameritech's computer systems. Others are testing and fixing equipment at 1,500 switches across the region that process phone traffic, Mitchell said.

Ameritech expects most of its problems related to 2000 will be fixed by January.

Madison Gas & Electric Co., the state's smallest investor-owned utility, is spending $4 million over two years to address the problem.

"We believe that there could be inconveniences, but nothing that will endanger the health or safety of our customers," said Gary J. Wolter, senior vice president of administration.

Wolter stressed that utilities are no strangers to planning for the worst.

"We have storms, equipment breakdowns -- we have problems all of the time," Wolter said. "That is what we do here -- and we are good at it." (end snip)

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), August 07, 1999.