Solution to complete meter reading and electricity bill at the end of the month

In order to gradually improve customer service quality, carry out digital transformation, and facilitate customers in monitoring and tracking monthly electricity meter reading schedules, the Central Power Corporation (EVNCPC) has implemented a roadmap to change the meter reading date to the end of the month for 4.7 million electricity customers in 13 provinces and cities in the Central Highlands region, expected to be completed for 100% of customers in 2024.

The electricity industry focuses on improving the quality of electricity services by supporting customers in installing equipment and committing to using electricity economically and efficiently. Photo: LK

Changing the meter reading date to the end of the month is done based on the consensus and agreement of electricity customers, through the agreement and electricity purchase contract signed between the customer and the electricity seller. In the month when the meter reading date is changed to the end of the month, the number of days of electricity use of the customer will be more than the same period, correspondingly the electricity consumption will be higher than the same period.

Changing the meter reading date does not affect the customer's rights, the electricity usage rate and the customer's electricity bill are still guaranteed to be calculated correctly according to the current electricity price regulations. In the following months, the number of days of electricity usage is equal to the number of days in the month.

Electricity companies of provinces and cities shall report to local authorities and local state management agencies, send information and instructions on how to calculate electricity bills, and tools to support electricity bill calculation through customer care information channels before implementation for customers to conveniently monitor and check. Accordingly, customers can monitor daily electricity consumption, refer to the tools to support electricity bill calculation on EVNCPC's official website or via the phone application.

After more than 2 months of implementing the meter reading and electricity bill at the end of the month, some advantages and shortcomings have been revealed that need to be overcome soon. In terms of advantages, customers can easily remember, monitor, and check the electricity consumption index according to the correct number of days in the month (from the 1st to the end of the month). Improve the quality of customer service, create efficiency, transparency, and ease of understanding in the management of electricity metering, meter reading, and electricity bill making. Facilitate the monitoring, management, and collection of electricity bills.

However, this work is still facing some difficulties and shortcomings. That is, the volume of work on the program in a day is very large (due to the meter reading and billing being done in one day), which creates pressure for the staff and employees of the electricity industry. On the other hand, due to the large volume of work, the number of errors that arise in a day is large and the waiting time for error handling is quite long.

Checking indexes and controlling abnormal output ensures that invoices are issued without errors, the volume that must be done in a day is very large. Especially in some cases, it is necessary to coordinate with customers to control abnormal output but due to the time being too late, it is impossible to contact customers to do it.

There is a lot of work, requiring a large number of human resources to perform the work, including some steps of input work, index control, invoice calculation, checking unusual customers, coordinating error handling... requiring the person performing the work to have skills and experience, while in the past, each of these jobs in the units was usually only assigned to one person, training additional human resources required time. In addition, in the process of operating and coordinating between work steps, the requirements are at a high level and require general managers to monitor and operate the work regularly...

From the above difficulties, PC Quang Tri has found a solution to overcome. That is, every day must focus on monitoring and handling customers with abnormal output warnings on the program https:// gssldien.cpc.vn. Review and handle offline measurement points before the meter reading date at the end of the month, ensuring the proportion of measurement points with online data on the meter reading date.

Review and complete the steps of dismounting the metering system, check to ensure the accuracy of the dismounting index on the CMIS program. Do not dismount the metering system on the day of recording the index, except in cases of force majeure. Check and handle customers with unusual output, customers with suspected standing, burnt, or damaged meters before the last meter reading date of the month according to the list provided by the company to reduce the burden of control on the day of recording the meter reading, and issue invoices at the end of the month.

Arrange enough staff at the end and beginning of the month to carry out tasks according to the workload. Employees when performing the task of recording indexes and creating electronic invoices must strictly follow the company's instructions. Timely submit errors and coordinate with the company's support departments, CPCIT, EVNICT to handle errors arising during the implementation of the business. Timely check and respond to the test results for customers with abnormalities that the company receives from customers.

Lam Khanh

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