PROBLEMS THREATEN ELECTRIC START UP; PUC VIEWS STOPGAP PLANS TO MEET DATE.

Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

With just two weeks to go before a state-mandated deadline, computer glitches have employees at two independent agencies scrambling to get California's new electricity market up and running.

Because of the difficulties, the California Public Utilities Commission said Monday it was considering alternative steps to take if one or both of the agencies fail to meet the Jan. 1 launch date.

``We're strongly committed to meeting the . . . deadline and I think we'll get there, but if things go wrong we want to be ready,'' said Jim Hendry, adviser to PUC Commissioner Gregory Conlon.

Hendry said the PUC has met to discuss contingency plans in case of a problem. Those plans have not been disclosed, but it has been speculated that one option would include keeping control of the power grid with the existing utilities until the new agencies are ready to take command.

Hendry said the PUC is reluctant to discuss contingency plans because ``it seems like if you admit there's a contingency plan and that (maybe) they're not going to make it, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.''

Workers at the agencies - the California Power Exchange and the California Independent System Operator - say they are rushing to get their respective computer and communications systems on line. The Power Exchange, or PX, is meant to serve as a sort of spot market for electricity under the new free-market scheme. The Independent System Operator, or ISO, will be responsible for transporting electricity across the state's power grid, a role that independent utilities now fill.

The two agencies were created in January, but only began hiring employees in July, said Becky Kilbourne, director of market services for the PX. That left just five months for them to create and test the complex, complementary computer systems that form the backbone of the open-market model.

As a result, crucial testing and debugging, especially of how the ISO and PX systems talk with one another, is still under way.

``Some days it works and some days it doesn't,'' Kilbourne said. ``We're bringing up a system very rapidly. In most cases you'd have more time. We're under a constrained schedule.''

At the ISO, officials say they are ``cautiously optimistic'' they can meet the Jan. 1 deadline. ISO spokesman Patrick Dorinson said his agency is working around the clock to get its system operational.

``We're putting together a large undertaking . . . and have a healthy respect for the task we're approaching. But things are moving forward,'' Dorinson said.

Perry Tribolet, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, said that while the full systems may not be operational until the end of 1998, some sort of scaled-back versions of the PX and ISO will likely be in place by Jan. 1.