African Utility Week - Comparing Innovation with Pre-Paid Meters vs Post-Paid Smartphone Approaches
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This presentation was given at African Utility Week 2015, by David Schaub-Jones, director of SeeSaw. The presentation looked at the use of prepaid meters by African Utilities and compared the pros and cons with innovating using smartphones and existing 'postpaid' approaches to reading meters, issuing bills and collecting revenue. SeeSaw specialise in the application of ICT to the water sector (especially in Africa).
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African Utility Week - Comparing Innovation with Pre-Paid Meters vs Post-Paid Smartphone Approaches
- 6. Prepaid Metering vs Postpaid Mobile Approaches
- 8. Source: Rabble.ca (Prepaid meter in Lesotho, 2008) Prepaid metering
- 9. Institutional Water kiosks Household meters Source: Heymans, Eales & Franceys, WSP 2014
- 10. Source: Heymans, Eales & Franceys, WSP 2014
- 11. Prepaid household meters Advantages for utilities Challenges for utilities Upfront collection Less admin around billing No reconnection charges High initial cost for prepaid meters Additional cost of repairs/maintenance/spare parts Need adequate pressure in network to supply Strong customer service required Technology has shown unreliable performance Large investment to adopt new technology (hardware, organisational change, training, etc)
- 12. Mobile – enabled Postpaid Approaches ???
- 13. 1) Enter meter number 2) Enter meter reading 3) Take a photo of meter (automatically records the date, time, and GPS co-ordinates) Mobile-enabled postpaid approach
- 14. 4) After meter reading, print bill and deliver 5) Send bill by SMS 6) Optional: take payment and print receipt Mobile-enabled postpaid approach
- 17. Source: Heymans, Eales & Franceys WSP 2014 (underlying diagram only)
- 18. Post-paid mobile innovation (vs prepaid) Advantages for utilities (compared to prepaid) Challenges for utilities (compared to prepaid) Capital costs much lower (opex too when full costs are taken into account) More easily integrated with current practices No need to maintain two billing systems and create a separate vending system Manageable training and organizational change Room for future evolution (with prepaid you are stuck with the tech you bought, ICT allows for evolution according to feedback) Meter readers can perform other functions (customer engagement, fault reporting) In-person disconnection still necessary Culture change of meter readers may be required Does not address institutional customers to same degree Does not offer some of the (often missing) advantages of prepaid water kiosks (eg longer hours, no vendor markup)
- 19. Our Philosophy … excerpts from SeeSaw ‘s website
- 20. Q & A