Madhya Pradesh

• 10 Sep 2021

Madhya Pradesh: Cyber Security in the Power Sector

Why in News

• On September 9, 2021, Madhya Pradesh became the first state in the country to implement the Cyber Crisis Management Plan in the State Load Despatch Center Jabalpur Power Sector.

Key Points

• Sunil Tiwari, Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company informed that on the instructions of the Central Government, the engineers of State Load Despatch Center of Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company have prepared an in-house cyber crisis management plan without taking the help of expert consultants.
• The scheme has been approved by the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT India) and implemented by the Government of India.
• It is an effective system of international level to prevent cyber attacks in power sectors. It deals with cyber security of all computer systems installed in the Load Despatch Centre.
• It is noteworthy that Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the country whose load dispatch center has been certified by ISO 27001. This certificate is given for compliance with cyber security.
• After implementing this system, the entire system of Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company will be safe from external cyber attacks and no one will be able to tamper with the power system of the state through hacking or viruses.
• It is worth noting that last year Mumbai's electricity system was a victim of this cyber attack, due to which there was power disruption in Mumbai for hours. It was only after this incident that instructions were given by the central government to prepare such cyber security to the power sectors of the entire country.
• This system was prepared by the efforts of Chief Engineer KK Prabhakar and Superintending Engineer Rajesh Gupta of State Load Despatch Center, Jabalpur.
• Earlier, the Load Despatch Center of Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company, Jabalpur has also got the status of the first power utility in the country to implement ABT metering system (Availability Based Tariff System) and SCADA system.