State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has emphasised the need for creating a unique call center for all power distribution companies.
The state minister on Saturday was speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration of Data Centre of Northern Electricity Supply Company Ltd (NESCO) virtually.
He said that the number of consumers is increasing as 100 per cent population has come under electricity coverage in the country. The use of technology must be increased to make the service accessible to the consumers. Without ICT infrastructure, it is difficult to establish transparency, accountability and integrity. A secure and reliable IT infrastructure will go a long way in facilitating services.
“It is advisable to strengthen institutional security. For this security, it is necessary to make arrangements for regular audit from the department concerned. Dummy case studies can be done if possible,” Nasrul Hamid added.
He said, “The demand for electricity in Rajshahi region will triple in the next five years. To this end, taking necessary development projects is needed. The city will be more beautiful and modern if we can start the work of laying underground cable in Rajshahi.”
NESCO has been supplying electricity to about 18 lakh consumers in the urban areas of Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions in the northern part of the country since October, 2016 through 55 sales and distribution divisions or power supply units.
The state-owned power distribution company took the initiative to build data centre to ensure the necessary infrastructure for uninterrupted consumer service. Connecting complex servers, applications and storage services under the data centre will facilitate the use of ongoing post-paid consumer billing, smart pre-payment metering systems, reporting, ERP, etc. and will be used for future GIS, SCADA systems as well.
Md Mohsin Chowdhury, Additional Secretary of Power Division presided over the function while Power Secretary Md Habibur Rahman, Divisional Commissioner GSM Zafarullah, Deputy Commissioner Abdul Jalil and Managing Director of NESCO Zakiul Islam spoke, among others.
