www.cajunelectric.com/y2k.htm

Cajun has developed contingency plans to address potential problems caused by Y2K. In October 1999, Cajun also plans to roll forward 1,730 MW of fossil generation to the year 2000 to mitigate the possible affects of the Y2K transition dates. These plants will remain in an advanced timeframe until the Spring of 2000 when they will be rolled back to the actual date.

Cajun Contact: Will Day, Y2K Program Coordinator

(225) 291-3060 (voice)

(225) 296-1746 (fax)

Problem SOLVED!!! Now, that wasn't so hard now, was it?

-- Will Day (info@cajunelectric.com), August 13, 1999

Answers

Many electric companies are doing this. OPPD in Omaha, NE has already rolled some of their generating facilities forward.

www.oppd.com

Of course they did type testing. Not too confident about them.

-- Justalurker (nope@nope.nope), August 13, 1999.

Will, is Cajun Electric (or any LA supplier) going this deep on the Sept. 9 drill?

The following are examples of  scenarios, time horizons, and 
resources committed for the September 8-9 drill:



 Loss of remote terminal units (RTUs)
 Blackstart radio check
 Pipeline stations to operate on manual for 2-3 hours
 12 cooperatives to talk together and with VP by satellite phones
 Managers and supervisors work with employees at substations; focus 
on communications
 Start at 1400 hours on 9/8 for dress rehearsal until 0200 hours on 
9/9
 Loss of normal communications; test satellite links; process 
computer in nuclear plant
 Hospitals  Customer drill will simulate a total outage of electric 
supply; will lose air conditioning; will actually go on backup power 
noon to 1600 hours
 Test contingency plans and command center
 Satellite communications and backup radios; distribution 
lockout/tagout will be manual
 Man 20 substations for dress rehearsal; lose some generation; put 
some generation that is on standby on-line
 Full rehearsal during day; expand communications drill to include 
customers; use exit strategy; communications drill with PJM at 
midnight
 Use of ham operators and 800 MHz emergency management radio system
 Fail business systems; use cellular phones; coordinate with 
Emergency Management Agencies (EMAs), some customers; problems with 
generation and transmission; 800 people, 9 pm 9/8 until 2 am 9/9
 Post rollover checklists/ verifications
 Simulate loss of RTUs, energy management system (EMS); put standby 
combustion turbine online; 10 pm until 2 am
 Coordinating with city EMA; exercising media information center; 
include one substation failure (non-Y2k) at 11:30 p.m.; potential 
load curtailment exercise; drill 50 of the 250 people available for 
December
 Contingency response plan deployment; monitor power systems in 
Europe to see how they respond; some local simulated failures; 10-20% 
of workforce out that night
 Daytime exercise with call center; communications drill in PM; set 
up emergency centers; loss of load scenario; plant trip; loss of 
environmental data; loss of bottom ash system
 Tabletop exercise on loss of load (less than anticipated load); 
communications drill; operating, Information technology, management, 
and facilities management personnel; deploy people for midnight 
rollover; open Y2k information center; media and government 
communications; drill call centers on outage calls and inquiries
 Involving 150 public utility districts (PUDs, small customers); 
radio communications with them; broadcast capability to get 
information out to them; involving hydro units
 Communications checks with neighboring systems; reading tie flows; 
calculate manual area control error (ACE); media at pool control 
center; media liaisons will do their real job; simulate loss of lines 
and generation; simulate curtailment of transactions; 8 am to 4 am on 
9th; practice regional and NERC call groups
 Loss of communications and use of human RTUs
 150 people in substations; full mobilization at 10 pm 9/8; report 
data until 2 am 9/9; 250 people
 Exercising business processes; information centers; customer care 
center; corporate communications; 7:30 pm start
 Loss of RTUs; phone systems; staffing blackstart units and key 
substations; roll out media relations; 400 people; use training 
simulator set to New Year conditions
 Simulate flood; staff emergency center; test communications with 
cooperative and municipal customers
 Loss of communications from control center and local dispatch 
centers; use plane for an airborne repeater station to bridge a 
communications gap; how to convert human RTU data to useful 
information
 6 pm 9/8 to 2 am 9/9; staff all blackstart units; frequency points 
assigned to plants; verbal talk through of blackstart procedure
 Power marketers participating from their emergency center; 
coordinating with generation facilities and exercise contingency plans
 Tabletop blackstart drill; staff substations in evening and 
simulate loss of communications; coordinate with emergency management 
agencies
 Staff contingency event centers; staff substations; operate with 
third level backup EMS; set up data collection process; include 
nuclear facilities; high voltage contingency at 3 am
 Business-side scenarios will not be known ahead; military and 
communications companies also are exercising (what kind of 
interactions with them?)
 Use satellite communications for control area operations; simulate 
communications failure with neighboring system, fossil plant, and 
nuclear plant; activate information center
 Test communications with host control area; not full dress 
rehearsal (municipal transmission dependent utility)
 Loss of communications and islanding of system simulated; over 
midnight deploy human RTUs
 Contingencies in fuels area; loss of fuel and communications; loss 
of public switched network; be able to communicate with key accounts; 
condensing contingency procedures and rollover into several hours
 Full dress rehearsal; second tier business systems will be included
 Try report by exception
 Training a second shift to be ready
 Loss of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, 
customer call center, communications; weather scenario; inviting 
media and customers to participate
 Including EMAs, simulated events; full deployment of staff; use of 
backup communications, human RTUs; control area to control area 
communications using satellite phones; reserve activation, load 
shedding, and other contingencies simulated
 Business systems; simulating ice storm and materials management; 
facilities management
 Emergency operations center; ham radio links; satellite phones to 
regional center; emergency broadcast tests; maintain a media center 
separated from the control center; executive management not at 
control center
 Primary and alternate teams; trained and drilled in June; August 12 
rehearsal, including a shift change; unannounced drill scenarios; 
simulate loss of generation, load, reduced SCADA and EMS and 
communications; will do shift change during September drill; 
customers, media involvement
 Need to nail down good list of telephone numbers
 Information system (IS) and information technology (IT) will run 
four different drills; run an IS and IT war room; will operate during 
rollover and drill; several hundred people ready to respond from 
IS/IT area
 Board members invited to participate
 Loss of electronic data exchanges; process to check accuracy of 
human reported information; some surprise scenarios built in
 Some large customers also setting up drill activities and want to 
interface with their power supplier
 Including cyber and other threat scenarios in the drill
 One customer providing backup phone system to power company to 
allow it to stay in communication with the company should there be a 
loss of public switched network
 Prepare for customer calls into customer service center
 How to measure effectiveness of drill?  What processes are 
effective?



2. What are the biggest challenges? How are you solving them?



 Large staffing issue  just the size of the activity; plus keeping 
regular jobs going
 How to measure effectiveness of drill processes?
 Are utilities planning to contact vendors and other critical 
suppliers during the drill
 Phone lists and radio frequency call groups
 Training of personnel; training in communications
 Avoid over-committing resources; need additional people available
 Lots of people involved in drill that would not normally participate
 Prepare a timeline with control messages; criteria of what the 
observer is looking for; rated on the spot
 Hospital - cost of lost revenue; large dollars involved; testing 
communications and backup vendors
 Getting unions to go along with the resource staffing plan
 Training personnel in event management and reporting processes
 Exchange of status information in company is harder; much harder 
now to include external companies and agencies
 Coordination of activities around midnight; confusion around 
midnight if simulated failures
 Over 600 people; logistical management challenge; labor union 
cooperation (volunteers for duty on New Years Eve)
 Assign project coordinator and team; assign accountable persons in 
each area
 Verifying manually obtained RTU data by plugging into EMS manually 
and comparing it to real time data
 Not able to get all the same people during drill and New Years 
rollover; large percentage will be same and have same assignment; 
training pack for each substation; give to personnel one week ahead 
as assignment is known
 Involved a wide range of departments and personnel in some tabletop 
exercises
 Take snapshots of system data and verify with data reported from 
field; keep good logs with time stamps; follow-up with debriefings 
soon after drill
 Simulate movement of generation based on human RTU data; then see 
how generation actually moves on real basis
 How to take care of major (all) customers; notify them of what is 
going on; every service area has at least one radio station that 
people listen to for emergencies; will provide timely statements to 
those radio stations for public and customers to hear
 Have satellite providers give us a report on satellite phone usage 
during the drill
 Beacon getting a lot of attention
 Most are planning to fuel trucks prior to key period; should this 
be practiced; resolve logistical issues 
 Overcome some challenges by keeping the drill simple
 Could we do a simultaneous load test on the satellite phones? 
 Will code of conduct be suspended?
 



3. How are you involving distribution systems, IPPs, power marketers, 
EMAs, and others?



 Getting distributors involved this time; setting up organizations 
and radio communications with them; additional new training
 Working with EMAs; utility personnel in those facilities with radios
 Simulating loss of natural gas; coordinate response with loss of 
communications
 Concern with run on gasoline at end of year  need to fill up early
 How do you stay up all night?  Let people doze/nap, as appropriate, 
make sleeping arrangements available
 Exception reporting vs. roll call to verify communications still OK.
 Every communication needs to say This is a drill before and after 
every statement
 Monitor CNN and local TV station
 Functional verification checks
 Prioritize information requirements
 Logistics of moving people around

-- interesting, commendable (scenarios@drills.tests), August 13, 1999.

(Dan 7:25 KJV) "...and think to change times and laws:"

-- Mark Hillyard (foster@inreach.com), August 14, 1999.