India has stepped up security of its hydropower assets and enhanced cyber vigil to protect the national grid, as tensions escalate with Pakistan following India’s strikes on terror camps in the neighbouring country on May 7.
Hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan, which shares borders with Pakistan in the north and the west, have activated their crisis management plans, power ministry officials confirmed to Moneycontrol.
“Each plant has its own crisis management plan and cannot be disclosed in public domain. In general, it includes a multi-pronged approach, ranging from physical security to preventing cyber incidents,” one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
A crisis management plan (CMP) is different from a disaster management plan (DMP) for power plants.
DMPs are public documents since it involves safety measures against natural calamities. CMPs are specific to each plant and are not shared, as they are meant for man-made crises.
Safety measures are also being put in place at under-construction projects in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Pakal Dul plant, Kiru, Kwar and Ratle plants.
The projects that are operational and have officials deputed on site include Baglihar (900 MW), Salal (690 MW), Kishanganga (330 MW), two units of Uri (480 MW and 240 MW), Dul Hasti (390 MW), and even smaller ones like the Jawahar Sagar hydro power plant (99 MW) in Rajasthan.
Grid security against cyberattack
To safeguard the power grid, state-owned Grid-India has activated its security operation centre (SOC) to monitor security events and incidents across all regional and national load despatch centres. The SOC has been set up at power grid for round-the-clock monitoring of critical assets.
India's national grid is one of the largest unified electricity grids in the world, with an installed generation capacity of 475.211 GW, as of March 31, 2025. It has a total of 4,85,544 circuit km of transmission lines and 12,51,080 MVA of transformation capacity. The inter-regional power transfer capacity is 1,18,740 MW.
Hackers can break into a power grid by targeting the digital control systems of smart grids. This can lead to blackouts, fluctuations in supply and physical damage to grid components.
Cyberattacks can be in the form of spyware, malware, network hacking of the grid or any power utility.
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In 2022, Tata Power, one of India’s largest private power generation companies, was hit by a cyberattack, which hit some of its information technology systems.
In the early hours of May 7, Indian forces launched strikes on nine recruitment centres, terror launch pads and training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in retaliation of the April 22 Pahalgam terror strike. were targeted. The two key sites among the nine were Muridke and Bahawalpur, headquarters of terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Two of the terrorists who gunned down 26 people in Pahalgam were Pakistani citizens, authorities have said.
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