Towering Oaks Questions

January 20, 1999

Mr. Rick Parvin
Minister of Church Education and Administration
1985 Buckingham Road
Greeneville, Tennessee 37745

Dear Mr. Parvin,

Thank you for inquiring about the preparations that Greeneville Light & Power System (GLPS) has made concerning Year 2000 (Y2k) problems which could affect some computer systems in the upcoming months. I will attempt to answer your questions below but should you need further explanation, feel free to call our office at 636-6214 any time. Further, we invite you and/or representatives of Towering Oaks Baptist Church to visit our facilities and see how computers are used in our day-to-day operations. Staff will be made available to answer any questions you might have.

  1. TOCS: Understanding that GLPS does not produce electricity, what guarantees can GLPS give it’s customers that there will not be any brownouts, blackouts, meltdowns or rationing of electricity in Greene County due to Y2k?


    2. GLPS has over 2000 miles of distribution lines, 50,000 poles, 18,000 transformers and over 100 miles of transmission lines. With a rural system our size, we can not guarantee uninterrupted service because of faults due to weather, automobile accidents, trees, and animals. We design our system in such a way such that when a problem does occur, the smallest possible number of customers is affected. We take the Y2k problem very seriously and have been testing our equipment to determine which parts of our electrical distribution system might be affected. Over 90% of our equipment does not have computer controls and therefore will perform normally during the transition to the year 2000. The remaining 10% has been tested and has been found to be fully compliant or functionally compliant and will not cause power to be interrupted during the transition. GLPS does not have any generation capacity. All power is purchased from TVA under a 10 year contract. We have been in contact with the Y2k department at TVA and have been assured that test are proceeding on time. Questions concerning the specifics of their test should be directed to TVA.

    Mr. Tommy J. Denson
    Manager, Year 2000 Project, TVA
    1101 Market Street, SP 3G
    Chattanooga, TN 37402-2801

    Phone: (423) 751-3209
  2. TOCS: Does GLPS have any plans to hire outside consultants to assist in locating, replacing and testing embedded computer systems that may cause problems? What is the GLPS budget for remediation?


    3. GLPS engineers and technicians have already tested all embedded processors in equipment that controls our distribution system and found that none of them will cause outages during the transition to the year 2000. All testing of this equipment has been done "in house" to insure the test are done properly and to keep cost low. In addition, we have received statements from all manufacturers of the equipment we use stating their Y2k readiness. We also work closely with other power companies sharing information about test that have been performed on similar equipment. One of our contractors, ECS of Morristown, has been assisting in testing personal computers and software. The board of directors of GLPS has approved replacement of the "hand held" meter reading equipment to eliminate Y2k problems in that system. This will be completed by April 1999. Any system with Y2k anomalies that will affect service to our customers will be repaired or replaced as necessary    .

  3. TOCS: Major Manufactures anticipate "vendor Just In Time" inventory delivery problems in the year 2000. Does GLPS intend on increasing its inventory of parts or major electrical equipment?


    4. No. GLPS does not use "Just In Time" inventory and maintains ample material and equipment spares at all times.

  4. TOCS: The Nuclear Regulatory commission has stated that it will shut down all nuclear power plants that are not 100% Y2k compliant. …. How will this affect electricity in Greene County?


    5. There are no nuclear power plants in Greene County. Questions relating to the nuclear power plants owned and operated by TVA should be addressed to TVA.

  5. TOCS: We are told that GLPS has emergency generators on standby. …


    6. This is not true. GLPS has no generation capacity and purchases all power from TVA. The only generators owned by GLPS are small units sized to run radio and telephone equipment at our facilities. Customers such as hospitals and radio stations have their own backup power generators. GLPS has no plans to purchase generation capacity for our customers.

  6. TOCS: Has GLPS’ GPS Synchronous Clock been upgraded or replaced? If not, how will the Navy’s GPS Rollover date of 21 August 199 affect GLPS’ computers?


    7. GLPS equipment is in no way connected to the GPS system. Clocks on the SCADA (System Control and Data Acquisition) computers are set manually and have been tested.

  7. TOCS: Contaminated data from one non-compliant SCADA system will corrupt a fully remediated one. What is GLPS’ contingency plan to insure its SCADA system does not receive corrupted data?


    8. The SCADA system owned by GLPS is in no way connected to another SCADA system. It is completely isolated from any computer outside our facilities. There seems to be some confusion about what SCADA does. Our equipment in the field will continue to operate autonomously with the SCADA computers turned off completely. GLPS was founded in 1945 and did not own SCADA until 1981. It simply gives us information about what is happening in the field and allows us to operate more efficiently and more safely.

  8. TOCS: Does the General Manager of GLPS have competent engineers and technicians sufficient to handle any Y2k electrical problems encountered prior to or after 1/1/2000?


    9. GLPS has dedicated, knowledgeable, employees capable of detecting and solving any Y2k problems that may arise.

  9. TOCS: For more than a year DOE has anticipated and informed the electrical industry of Y2k issues. Why hasn’t GLPS kept Greene County citizens more informed?


    10. There has been several articles in the Greeneville Sun pertaining to Y2k. GLPS manager Bill Carroll wrote a public statement (copy attached) on June 25, 1998 which has been available upon request. We have responded to all customer inquiries and invite representatives of any organization to tour our facilities.

  10. TOCS: Since GLPS’ SCADA computer system has been tested and we can expect it to operate without failure in 2000, will GLPS acknowledge responsibility of any loss of life, limb or property due to GLPS’ SCADA computer system failure?

The SCADA system owned by GLPS will not cause power failures during the transition to the year 2000. Legal questions concerning any loss of life, limb or property due to failures of the electric system owned by GLPS or others can be more appropriately answered by attorneys retained by the City of Greeneville, the owner of GLPS. You may contact us to obtain the telephone number and address of our attorney.


Sincerely,

Allen Tweed
Senior Engineer
Greeneville Light & Power System

Jat/me
Enclosure

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