APTransco set to fast track HT connections as demand rises

Amaravati: In view of rapid industrialisation, the APTransco will fast track its plan to sanction HT power connections to every mega industry in the state. It has devised an IT programme for providing HT connections within a short span of time with the available necessary power infrastructure facilities. Energy department officials said the initiative would show greater impact on the state in attracting investments and more significantly, accelerates the process of issuing HT connections for industries much before the timelines of citizen charter.

Simultaneously, the APTransco has adopted a foolproof cyber security mechanism with most robust technologies to avoid any possible hacking or misuse. During a teleconference held on Sunday, Energy Minister K Kala Venkata Rao appreciated the efforts of APTransco and said the IT measures would not only help the industrial consumers, but also contributes to economic development and employment generation. “Such kind of global IT practices like single window system for online submission of HT applications, online tracking, processing will help to avoid delays in the manual process and more importantly, it will ensure transparency,” he said.

Explaining about the cyber security system, principal secretary to IT department K Vijayanand said that as part of cyber security, perimeter security is handled by Fortinet FG600 appliance. He sought views of IT experts on hacking free systems and requested to share information for the next level of security systems.

The APTransco, which has already reduced its transmission losses from 5.3 per cent in 2014 to existing of 3.0 per cent, has developed an extensive action plan to utilise the IT initiatives to further reduce the losses to 2.5 per cent on par with advanced countries in Europe.

Explaining about another initiative-Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Vijayanand said the APTransco has adopted ERP to integrate all the departments within the TRANSCO to ensure quick decisions with interconnected modules like material management, plant maintenance, finance and controlling, human resources module and e-Governance.

Joint Managing Director of APTransco Dinesh Paruchuri said that efforts were being made to strengthen the State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) operations through IT enabled Load Monitoring Cell Process Automation (LMCPA).

“This will enable the generating stations and downstream bulk consumers to upload their day ahead schedules for effective power system planning, load management and streamline operations for ensuring power quality and grid safety,” he said. APTransco JMD Umapathi, APSEEDCO MD A Chandrasekhar Reddy, director (APTransco Grid) Y Adam, chief engineers Bhaskar and J Raghupathi, ED planning B V Santhiseshu participated.