Russia's UES EESR.RTSsees no Y2K electric blackout

Great news if true. [Fair use/educational purposes]

MOSCOW, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Russian national power grid UES said on Friday it had taken steps to ensure cities would not be plunged into darkness and cold by the millennium computer bug on January 1. The company, which effectively controls the Russian power utility industry and is one of the dynamos of the stock market, said it had spent 300 million roubles ($11.3 million) fixing millennium bug problems.

``I can safely say that we are are quite sure -- and are not just hoping -- that the millennium bug will not cause any serious electric power failures,'' UES Chief Engineer Anatoly Okin told a news conference.

The United States has said Russia is ``somewhat prepared'' to prevent potential mayhem if, as some experts predict, older computer systems which store the year as two digits read the two zeros at the end of 2000 as 1900 and malfunction.

``UES will continue to work stably and there will not be any failures in the provision of electricity and heat to towns and the population,'' Okin said. Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, charged with overseeing Y2K problems as well as being in charge of the defence industry, said earlier this month he could declare the nation safe.

In spite of fears that computer-controlled services from bank automatic teller machines to nuclear power stations could go haywire, Klebanov said most Russians would notice nothing more than a few non-critical systems malfunctioning.

One of the central banks' deputy chairmen, Mikhail Senatorov, was quoted on Thursday as saying Russia's banking system was largely ready for the millennium date change.

Russia's telecommunications infrastructure has been reported to be mostly safe from Y2K problems, because many networks pre-date computer systems while others -- notably military ones -- have been upgraded to avoid computer glitches.

Okin said engineers will be on hand over the new year to deal with any problems that crop up, but added these would be minor ones.

($-26.5 roubles)

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 26, 1999

Answers

I thought that they had trouble keeping it up WITHOUT Y2K!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 26, 1999.