Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Limited (LECO) introduced three initiatives to provide efficient customer service delivery under the Switch On Future Event in Battaramulla last week.
The event marked the introduction of the MYLECO App to customers enabling access to a myriad of customer services including services such as access to consumption details, account details, power outages, on-line bill settlements by accessing customer’s respective bank account and repair services.
The second initiative, Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) through which the network is supervised, controlled and serviced was also introduced.
The SMART grid integration platform (SMIP) which enables the integration of smart grid equipment to a unified platform in online data acquisition and controls was the third initiative. This enables publishing advanced customer solutions such as prepaid billing, on line monitoring of power consumption and access to customers to monitor their energy usage seamlessly and scalably.
The government is encouraging the power sector to be more environment-friendly while maintaining efficiency and effective customer service. The initiatives launched will help support LECO to be more customer centric in its approach and provide a seamless service, Minister of Power, Energy and Business Development, Ravi Karunanayake said.
“Connecting customers in a more friendly manner will promote and build loyalty for the company. This will be a good move to fuel LECO’s growth prospects. As customers play a key role in business development, the initiatives taken by LECO could be considered as future investment in the power sector,” he said.
The three initiatives are in-house build capabilities aimed at customer convenience and moving towards digital era. LECO does not believe that this mission can be achieved by imported solutions. Instead, our call in this issue is to develop in-house, home-gown solution to utility digitalisation. Therefore, LECO, in line with the government policy in converting our power system to a SMART grid, has developed in house digital solutions to infuse automations to its distribution system, system operation and customer services, he said.
Research and Development work carried out by LECO engineers associated with the SMART meters designed and manufactured in our joint venture company Ante LECO Metering, has positioned us at a cornerstone in utility digitalisation.
“We have been able to provide this transparent view to our customer because of our deep digitalisation achieved over the years. Our ERP based operations, integrated system based billing, Human Resource Information System based management and the Geo Information System provides our staff a glass through view of our operations,” General Manager of LECO, H. N. Gunasekera said.
LECO is a state-owned electricity distribution utility, set up in 1983. The company has come a long way starting as a state owned private company and has now transformed to a state owned regulated enterprise. The company is a bench-mark utility in the South Asian region for its achievements in energy loss control, distribution system management, operation and customer Services.