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Mass Estimated Electricity Bills during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

Mamade Ibrahim Joomun

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the electricity meter could not be read manually on-site every month. Hence mass estimated invoicing will be done based on last month consumption or an average of six months. How to avoid under-billing and over-billing since the consumption trends are drastically varied during the lockdown period e.g. residential customers are consuming more electricity and on the other hand, commercial customers are not operating their businesses, therefore, their consumptions have dropped significantly.

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    Even if you can't read them every month, just one reading is enough to bring the bills back into line with what they should be.

    Are the meters locked away where only a small number of people have access?  If so, that's something that should be fixed in the longer term.  People should be able to check their own meters.

  • 0

    Unfortunately, customers could not check their meters as their devices are either locked in safety cabins/cupboards belonging to utility providers or Landlords - under Padlocks and seals.

    Around 475,000 meters have been massively estimated for the three consecutive months (March 2020 to May 2020) based on the average of six months consumption. Only 2% of the devices are smart meters and their readings are uploaded via AMR. About 80% of meters are either under-read or over-read. Mass amendments have been done to adjust the billing charges after reading the meters manually on site. Extra resources are needed to amend these invoices on SAP.

    Customers are getting confused and furious with their monthly bills due to the amendments. Some are lodging complaints and queries against the high bills. The request for check meters is in great demand. 

    The COVID-19 pandemic has incredibly disseminating hostile relationships between customers and utility providers.

    In the long term, smart meters are the best solution. But in many locations, even the meter readings data could not be captured due to interference and weak signal strength of mobile communication.

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