Lok Sabha Question No. 1273 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-07-27
Subject: Safety of National Power Grid
Ministry: POWER
Asked by: K. Shanmuga Sundaram

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1273

## ANSWERED ON 27.07.2023

## SAFETY OF NATIONAL POWER GRID

## 1273. SHRI SHANMUGA SUNDARAM K.:

Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the functional operability of National Power Grid;
- (b) whether the Government has taken sufficient steps to protect the National Power Grid from Cyber attacks and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) if not, the reasons therefor;
- (d) the details of cyber attacks taken place on the National Power Grid, yearwise since 2014;
- (e) whether  such  entities  involved  in  cyber  attacks  on  the  power  grid  are prosecuted and punished and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) if not, the reasons therefor?

## A N S W E R

## THE MINISTER OF POWER AND NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY

(SHRI R.K. SINGH)

- (a) :   The  Indian  national  power  grid  serves  the  Generators,  Transmission, Distribution  systems  and  the  consumers  of  the  electricity.  The  Indian  grid  is demarcated into 5 synchronously connected regional grids viz. Northern Region, Eastern  Region,  North  Eastern  Region,  Southern  Region  and  Western  Region which also encompass the state grids in respective regions. The supervision of power grid and coordination with different  utilities  is  being  carried  out  by  the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) and respective Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDC) and State Load Despatch Centres (SLDC) as per their jurisdiction at various hierarchical level at national, regional and state.
- (b) & (c) : Government  of  India  has  taken  following  steps  to  protect  the National Power Grid from Cyber attacks:
-  Central  Electricity  Authority  (CEA)  has  issued  Guidelines  for  Cyber security  in  Power  Sector  in  October  2021  leading  to  development  and implementation  of  Cyber  Security  measures  such  as    Cyber  Crisis Management Plans, identification of Critical Information Infrastructures,

Information Security Management System (ISO 27001), Onboarding Cyber Swatchatta  Kendra  of  Indian  Computer  Emergency  Response  Team (CERT-In) for monitoring open & vulnerable services and botnet infections, vulnerability assessment  of  critical installations  through CERT-In  empaneled  auditors,  skill  enhancement  of  workforce  through level  1&  2  training  conducted  by    National  Power  Training  Institute (NPTI).

-  A Computer Security Incident Response Team for Power sector (CSIRTPower) under guidance of CERT-In has been setup at CEA, to coordinate and  support  the  response  to  cyber  security  incidents  and  hand-hold utilities  for  preventing,  detecting,  handling,  and  responding  to  cyber security  incidents.  CSIRT-Power  provides  expert  guidance  to  mitigate and prevent cyber incidents to protect Critical Information Infrastructure assets and enhance cyber resilience.
-  As Computer Emergency Response Team of Grid Operations, Grid-India, apart from taking care of cyber security of RLDC(s) and NLDC control centres, also coordinates with SLDCs for taking care of cyber security of their respective control centre by them.
-  The IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operation Technology) systems of NLDC/RLDCs under GRID-INDIA has been designed considering  necessary  controls  to  mitigate  the  cyber  threats  and associated cyber security devices have been installed for prevention of cyber-attacks.
-  The  coordination  with  the  statutory  bodies  and  compliance  to  the directives thereof are ensured by GRID-INDIA on regular basis.
-  Establishment  of  Security  Operations  Center  (SOC)  and  on  boarding with Cyber Swachhta Kendra (CSK): GRID-INDIA has established a 24x7 Security Operations Center.
-  Employee  awareness  sessions  are being conducted  frequently to sensitize employees about cyber security.
-  Mandatory Cyber Security Certification through NPTI have been introduced for IT /OT and cyber security personnel of GRID-INDIA
- (d) : As  informed  by  POWERGIRD  and  GRID-INDIA,  there  has  been  no Cyber attack on their systems since 2014.
- (e) & (f) : Does not arise in view of (d) above.

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