Business Mirror Published on Sunday, 10 March 2013 18:31
POWER retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) expects to start its P325-million customer information system (CIS) project in June, with the full rollout target set in September.
In a filing with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Meralco asked for the issuance of a provisional authority (PA) to allow it to start implementing the CIS project and complete it on schedule to better serve its more than 5 million customers.
Meralco’s customer management system (CMS), which is already seen as obsolete, will be replaced by the CIS. The said system is already being utilized by Meralco’s medium and large industrial and commercial customers. The utility firm now wants this implemented to its “residential, general service, small commercial/industrial and flat street lights customers.”
The CIS is meant to improve Meralco’s service application, meter reading, billing, payments, collections and customer assistance. “The implementation of the CIS will enable Meralco to address customer requirements that cannot be handled by the CMS mainframe. Expanding the new features and functions of the CIS will extend the benefits afforded by these new features to these other Meralco customers,” it said in its application.
Some of the new features include customer payments anywhere, any time and whatever amount, sending of electric bills via e-mail, better monitoring and handling of customer complaints.
When asked if the new system will entail additional cost to Meralco residential customers, Alfredo Panlilio, vice president for customer retail services, said “not in the immediate future,” as he pointed out that: “There is no immediate impact of the CIS project to consumers. If ever there will be, it will be included in our fourth regulatory period and won’t be as much if ever.”
Meralco’s filing indicated that the issuance of provisional authority by the ERC would not affect the retail rates in the current third regulatory period. “The building-block components associated with the project from the time it is put to service and considered used and useful within the third regulatory period be considered as deferred amount to be included in Meralco’s fourth regulatory period reset calculations.”
Meralco pointed out that the proposed timetable for the implementation of the CIS project is crucial. In order to meet the target pilot test in June, the rollout activities need to be finalized as soon as possible, and systems integration testing should be completed in May.
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