Thirteen U.S. utilities may not be ready for Y2K...11/19/99

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thirteen local electrical utilities around the United States have failed to report their readiness status for computer problems that could switch off the lights at the end of the year, the Energy Department said Friday.

But the department said in a statement that bulk and local utilities serving 99.99 percent of the population were ready for the end of the year.

"Today we are releasing the names of 13 municipal utilities, serving 1,937 customers, that still have not reported on their Y2K readiness status," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said. "By releasing names, we're hoping to apply pressure."

Y2K is shorthand for the Year 2000 computer bug, in which older computer programs that use only two digits to represent the year may fail to recognize 2000 or mistake it for 1900.

Every sector of the U.S. economy has launched a major drive to correct the problem, which could potentially cause breakdowns in all areas of modern life controlled by computers, from traffic signals to electrical power.

Richardson said his department had been working flat out "from Maine to Moscow" to prepare for Y2K. "The Energy Department is aggressively working in partnership with industry to assure Americans that their lights will stay on past midnight on New Year's Eve," he said.

The utilities that have failed to report their status are:

--Electrical District No. 8, Maricopa County (Phoenix, Ariz.)

--Tuolumne County Public Power Agency (Sonora, Calif.)

--Declo Municipal Electric Department (Declo, Idaho)

--Albion Light & Water Plant (Albion, Idaho)

--Seward Electric Department (Seward, Kansas)

--Radium Light Department (Radium, Kansas)

--Isabel City Electric Department (Isabel, Kansas)

--City of Herndon (Herndon, Kansas)

--Town of Whalan (Whalan, Minn.)

--Mansfield Municipal Light System (Mansfield, Mo.)

--Elk Creek Light & Water Department (Elk Creek, Neb.)

--Holbrook Municipal Light Plant (Holbrook, Neb.)

--Custar Board of Public Affairs (Custar, Ohio)