NERC Report Says Power Grid Safe from Y2K
The Year 2000 bug shouldn't affect the North American power grid, according to a report released by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC).
The report, the second of four quarterly updates by NERC on the progress being made by the continent's more than 3,000 power distributors in combating the Y2K bug, says that more than half of all mission-critical power systems are free of possible Y2K problems, up from 44 percent at the end of November.
Testing done so far indicates the millennium date rollover will have a minimal impact on electric system operations such as incorrect dates in logs or monitor displays, not major problems that would cause power blackouts, NERC says.
NERC will file two more progress reports this year and conduct Y2K rollover drills in April and September.
--D. Callaghan