A Web Portal for Electricity Utility and Consumers

Abstract

In recent years Internet and World Wide Web has become the most popular mass media among the general population in developed countries. e.g. more than 50% households are online in developed world. Already Internet has started penetrating the Sri Lankan population and it is growing rapidly. Online bill payment has made some significant strides in the last few years. Out of the total e-commerce volume, the customer bill settlement takes a large portion. Traditionally customers paid their bills using cheques, money orders or cash. Whereas by paying the bills online the customer will save time and money (For travelling). Further the customers could pay their bill 24 hours a day and 7 days of the week leisurely from their home/office. The utility will also get the advantage of getting their bill settled early and hence could reduce the costs by removing the paper based billing system. In this research project, a Web Portal is developed for Ceylon Electricity Board, i.e. main electricity utility in the country and for electricity customers. By this interactive web site, the customers could log in and see their monthly bill, payments done in the past etc. Further the customers could settle their bill online using a credit card. This web portal could be used by the meter readers of the electricity utility to enter the data from the field as and when the readings are taken. The management staff could used this web portal to get reports on monthly electricity sales, monthly revenue etc. A recent development in GSM communication is the use of text message or SMS for the interchange of small text messages between phone users. Similarly the utility could use a SMS message to remind the customer regarding his monthly bill payment. Then the customer could send his approval for bill payment by return SMS message and after that utility could credit his bank account or credit card and complete the transaction. In this case the customer could settle his bill without visiting a billing centre or bank. Accessing the monthly bill via GPRS/WAP enabled GSM phone and bill settlement is also a smart feature the utility could provide for its customers.