POWER UTILITIES CAN’T SURVIVE WITHOUT RESILIENT TELECOMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE - ZESCO HEAD ICT SAYS
ZESCO Limited Head of Information and Communications Technologies, Frank Lombe Chibesakunda says investing in a robust and resilient telecommunication infrastructure that is adaptive to a fast-evolving business environment is cardinal for member utilities of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).
Mr. Chibesakunda said on Tuesday, 12 December 2023 during the opening of a three-day meeting of the SAPP Telecommunication Working Group (TWG) being held at Avani Victoria Falls Resort in Livingstone.
“The Telecommunication Working Group has three focus areas which are important to our utilities, and these are telecommunications, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Cyber Security, Utilities can’t survive without a resilient and secure telecommunication infrastructure,” he said.
“Visibility and monitoring of the grid can’t be possible without secure SCADA systems. Several issues are happening in the utilities which were not happening before. We have challenges as professionals to ensure that these three components are aligned.”
The Head - ICT observed that, despite utilities having invested in ICT infrastructure, most of it is not in the best state.
“Telecommunication, SCADA systems, Cybersecurity need to be in place. They also need to be kept running. However, we know the challenges. Though they are key, they are presently not in a good state. It’s either there is no backup data, or they are in an obsolete state or the budget is inadequate. We need to work together as SAPP members and ensure we build resilience in our utility infrastructure. I hope the resolutions from here will add value to the leadership so that they can make the right decisions,” Mr. Chibesakunda said.
He added: “Digital transformation is at the center of what is happening everywhere. I think I see several utilities driving that agenda, but the three components need to be in place and in the right shape. You can’t talk of digital transformation without a secure power utility. Digital Transformation is moving very fast. We won’t stop it but need to move with it by making sure that there is enough protection when that is happening. This is a very important meeting for ZESCO. We are happy on behalf of ZESCO Corporate Leadership Team to host you.”
ZESCO Limited has implemented and integrated Security Operations Center (SOC) which protects its technology domain from Cyber-attacks 24/7. The Corporation is among the few utilities under SAPP to have such a modern infrastructure.
The three-day SAPP Telecommunication Working Group Meeting being hosted by ZESCO Limited has attracted participants from 11 power utilities drawn from the SADC member countries. The utilities represented physically and virtually include ZESCO Limited, the Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc, SNEL of the Democratic Republic of Congo, ZESA of Zimbabwe, RNT of Angola and EDM of Mozambique. Fibrecom, a subsidiary of ZESCO Limited is tagging along its parent company.
The SAPP Telecommunication Working Group falls under the Operating Sub Committee of the SAPP mandated to attend to telecommunication infrastructure, SCADA systems, Video Conference and Cybersecurity beneficial to the SAPP member utilities.