WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's gas and electric utilities are ready for the new year, having made the last of the corrections necessary to avoid the Y2K bug, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Thursday. "The nation should be ready for the Y2K rollover" without widespread power outages, Richardson said. He offered this advice: "Stay cool, don't panic, plan as for a winter storm - and that's it." Richardson and the executives of the American power industry said, however, that they are ready for any contingency and will have hundreds of thousands of workers in place or standing by when the clock hits midnight Dec. 31. Except for accidents and winter storms, they expect a normal,    uneventful, New Year's Eve with no widespread loss of light or heat.