VIJAYAWADA: The AP Transco, for the first time in India, has adopted a foolproof cyber security mechanism with most robust technologies to avoid any possible hacking or misuse. Explaining about the cyber security system during a teleconference with Minister for Energy K Kala Venkata Rao and other higher officials of the department on Sunday, IT Department Principal Secretary K Vijayanand said that the perimeter security as part of the system was being handled by Fortinet FG600 appliance.
He said the firewall equipment was established in AP Transco Corporate office. The officials are also planning to establish high availability Firewall and Secure access to the central office/headquarters from branches (site to site VPNs) and remote access VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) has been provided for telecommuters.
Vijayanand sought views of IT experts on hacking-free systems and requested to share information for the next level of security systems. He also informed that several IT-enabled services to provide quality power services and achieve 100 per cent consumer satisfaction level was in the pipeline.
The AP Transco, which has already reduced its transmission losses from 5.3per cent in 2014 3.0 per cent now, has developed an extensive action plan to utilise the IT initiatives to further reduce losses to 2.5 per cent on par with advanced European countries.
According to him, AP Transco will fast-track its plan to sanction HT power connections to every mega-industry in the State. It has devised a unique IT programme for providing HT connections within the shortest possible time with the available necessary power infrastructure facilities.
This initiative will show a greater impact on the State in attracting investments and, more significantly, accelerate the process of issuing HT connections for industries much before the timeline of citizen charter specified by the APERC (Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission).
Explaining about another initiative Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Vijayanand said that the AP Transco has adopted the ERP to integrate all the departments within the AP Transco to ensure quick decisions with interconnected modules like material management, project management, plant maintenance, finance and controlling, human resources module and e-Governance etc. This integrated approach will also aid to improve internal efficiency and qualitative improvements in the delivery of services to the consumers.