In other Y2K-related developments:

Powering Down: Major power plants across the Western U.S. will operate at reduced levels on New Year’s Eve to allow electric companies to increase power output in case of any problems. The reason for the limits, which take effect about 9 p.m. PST on Friday, is to allow more power plants to operate, thereby reducing the impact should a unit trip off line. Reduced transmission limits allow the system to be more forgiving should outages occur and also provide capacity that can be used to help buoy areas that experience supply difficulties. Futures Exchanges Cautious: The New York Mercantile Exchange is giving energy and metals futures traders an extra recovery day from New Year’s festivities, as it is planning one of the more cautious Y2K computer transitions of any U.S. exchange. Most Wall Street and other financial and commodity futures exchanges will be closed on Friday and will reopen Monday, with the computer system switch-overs widely expected to proceed without any major glitches. But no trading will occur until Tuesday in the rings of the NYMEX or its COMEX division. “Our position was that we wanted to do everything we could to ensure a smooth operation,” said a NYMEX official, adding that the holiday schedule for 1999 was set a year ago, when concerns were significantly higher that computers might cause market mayhem by misreading the year 2000 as 1900.