(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- The acceptance of prepaid meters to have a bill-free service among electricity customers in Muscat is increasing. There is a rise in the number of people opting for e-payment and e-billing services as well.
Muscat Electricity Distribution Company (MEDC) is pushing for further uptake of ICT technology by its customers and make use of its services like e-payment and e-billing as well go in for prepaid meters to have a bill-free service.
The electricity distribution company, which is responsible for power distribution and supply across Muscat governorate, stated in its annual report for 2017 that e-billing, which is a feature to receive bills electronically, has been recorded at 20.07 per cent of the customer base.
The company managed to reduce payment via manned to electronic channels ending the year with 29 per cent e-payments compared to 15 per cent in January 2017. The company had also introduced personalised e-bills through SMS towards the end of last year.
MEDC further stated that the 'Meter Reading and Bill Delivery' operating model was changed from single service provider to the introduction of three service providers dedicated in respective zones in order to diversify and increase focus on meter reading in 2017.
'To date, the three service providers have demonstrated high competency and delivered improved performance which is reflected in a high level of accumulated meter reading of 91.8 per cent from the total customer base,' it said.
The company added that its prepaid meter service (Sabiq) uptake is on the rise, reaching 10.76 per cent of the total customer base in 2017. Sabiq enables customers to have a bill-free service with full monitoring over their consumption.
MEDC became the first electricity distribution company in the sultanate to offer prepaid electricity metering services to consumers in 2014. Sabiq customers are able to exercise complete control over their electricity consumption patterns, enabling them to monitor usage on an hourly, daily or monthly basis. Customers can identify equipment or devices that can help them save electricity by either switching them off or reducing their usage.
The company's other innovative service of smart meters, which helps large industrial, commercial and government customers to benefit from relatively lower non-peak tariffs under the Cost Reflective Tariffs (CRT) scheme, allows high value customers to rationalise their overall power usage. 'This has resulted in high level of accuracy in meter reading and billing which also positively contributed to reduction in losses. MEDC is currently using smart meters for 50 per cent of its revenue calculation, which is a great achievement,' it stated.
The smart meters use automated meter reading technology, creating a higher level of interconnectivity, engagement and sustainability with a goal of enhancing the quality and speed of processing metering data. Furthermore, it works towards improving billing process, mitigating losses, lessening query-related costs and reducing debtor days.
The company also introduced Thabit billing service at the end of 2017. It allows customers to pay fixed amount each month for their electricity bill. The billing amount is the average of past 12 months' consumption.
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