Electricity and heating oil and gas networks are another issue, one that will have a very direct impact on at least one percent of the population for at least a few hours or days during the Y2K transition. That's assuming that the utilities industry can repair its systems to the very best standard of quality, and that only half of the remaining systems fail, directly impacting a proportional number of homes. In reality, the utilities industry is far from solving 98 percent of its Y2K problems and, because of the ripple effect that spreads around a failed system, the consequences are unpleasant for far more than one percent of the population. Think of the utilities that serve your home as more than electrical current or natural gas flowing through a pipe. They are the terminal your home uses to interact with networks of producers, brokers and transmission services, which collect power or gas from many different places to supply your needs.
Systems can fail anywhere along that supply chain.
Only if your utility can't provide you specific answers in response to your questions about Y2K readiness. Accounting Banking Business Finance Government Healthcare Insurance Legal Manufact. 1999 ZD Inc. All rights reserved. ZDNet and the ZDNet logo are trademarks of ZD Inc.