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India's power network will soon be more future-ready and insulated from cyber attacks with the provision of routine inspections and timely action under the Electricity Amendment Bill, Union Power Minister RK Singh said. Cyber attract threat has been an issue and the government did all what it takes to address that. Now through the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022, the power ministry has made a provision for inspection of the national electricity grid for maintaining cyber hygiene in the network. Talking to PTI, Singh said, "We are facing cyber attacks on our power transmission system. We know from where those are emanating. We have provided (a safeguard) for that, which requires inspection regularly. We need to follow cyber hygiene. "Therefore, we are empowering our central (national) load dispatch centre so that it can do inspections and give directions. We have one grid in the country and if there is some issue in one corner of the nation then the entire grid can collapse. That is
Power sector employees on Thursday held nationwide protests against the government's decision to privatize discoms, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said. They also demanded withdrawal of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 and scrapping of the standard bidding document (SBD). "Lakhs of power sector employees including engineers, today held nationwide protests seeking the withdrawal of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020, scrapping of SBD and opposed the privatization of power distribution companies (discoms) in states and union territories," AIPEF spokesperson V K Gupta said in a statement. Gupta said protest meetings were held in all the states and union territories, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, among others. He noted that the power engineers did not join Thursday's strike called by ten central trade unions and just staged a simple protest to highlight
Consumers will be able to change their power suppliers just like telecom services, after proposed amendment to the existing Electricity Act is approved, Union Minister R K Singh said. The power ministry will push Electricity Amendment Bill in forthcoming Budget session, which provides for segregating the distribution network business and the electricity supply business. "We are bringing a lot of amendment in the Electricity Act. It also provides for separation of carriage and content business. The draft would come to me in another week or so. We will try to push it for passage in Budget session of Parliament," the power and new & renewable energy minister told PTI in an interview. The separation will pave the way for introducing a new system where consumers will have option to choose from multiple electricity service providers in their areas, similar to that of telecom services. Elaborating further Singh said, "Once the Act is amended, we would prepare a roadmap in .