Smart Meter and Customer Support System

Abstract

Lanka electricity company is a power distributor which has seven main branches. LECO head office is situated in Colombo 3. Billing processes, disconnection re-connection processes are performed in the main branch. The Main goal of the LECO is quality power distribution for consumers. The smart meter was introduced to LECO in the latter part of year 2016 LECO handles a manual file system for smart meter related transactions which has caused data redundancy and inconsistency. The administration has faced problems while making decisions because of this system. The wastage of the time of the employees due to the inconsistent data is one of the major problems faced. The expansion of the smart meter consumer base, the increasing competition and the need of additional facilities, LECO management have decided to move into an efficient and effective computerized system which will provide speed and timely services. The proposed system has to include functionalities to support smooth and effective smart meter bill calculation, disconnection reconnection and payment related process. The system should assist system analysis process and a report generation facility. The system will be integrated with the existing billing system of Lanka electricity company. The system is developed using ‘NetBeans’ and ‘eclipse’ with the use of recommended frameworks. Oracle 11g is selected as the database server, a free business graphic application, ‘Draw IO’ has been used for designing the diagrams. The language used for the implementation of the systems are java, android and PHP languages with procedural language extension to Structured Query Language (PLSQL). The developed system enables connection, service changes, disconnection, reconnection, data analysis, report generation and provide effective communication between the system users. The difficulties of the company employees faced has been successfully addressed by the LECO smart meter and customer support system (SMCS) system.