Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), a state-owned power utility, has chosen the Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter platform to modernize its digital billing infrastructure after investing in significantly expanding electricity access across the country. The solution will support the organization’s smart meter rollout to deliver enhanced, digitized customer service and billing services to its 35 million customers.
Serving a customer base with some of the lowest average energy bills in the world (typically less than $1 per bill), BREB’s infrastructure development projects are critical to improving economic growth and quality of life in Bangladesh. BREB notes that rural electrification efforts have helped increase per capita income by $3,000 over the past decade through job creation, expanded working hours, increased worker mobility and other factors.
In its next investment phase, BREB will adopt 500,000 prepaid smart meters powered by Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter and plans to later expand to five million smart meters nationwide. Oracle partner Oculin Tech BD Ltd will support the implementation of a data center and its interoperability between future devices.
“To continue advancing the Smart Bangladesh mission through rural and semi-rural electrification, we need proven solutions that support more efficient customer billing and digital self-service activities,” said Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Project Director, Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board. “The proven success of the partnership between Oracle and Oculin Tech in Bangladesh with projects such as NESCO and DPDC, combined with Oracle’s flexible, integrated billing and metering data management capabilities, gave us confidence that this was the right solution for our needs.”
Strong, integrated customer connections
Scalable to serve the world’s largest utilities, Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter helps organizations of all sizes flexibly adapt as the industry evolves. The platform offers leading Customer Information Systems (CIS) with fully advanced measurement capabilities in a single solution. The offering runs on a single database and user interface. Oracle Utilities Customer to Meter’s robust billing and rating engine, combined with pre-built integrations into headend and Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) systems, enables the utility to flexibly service both prepaid and postpaid customers through the same digital billing infrastructure . This gives BREB better agility to adapt to future needs and optimize smart meter investments.
We support ‘Smart Bangladesh’
With Oracle Utilities Customer-to-Metering smart meter data collection and analysis, BREB can use aggregated consumption data and billing identifiers to improve billing accuracy and collection. This digitalized billing process provides customers with better visibility and control over their electricity consumption and costs, while also supporting grid efficiency through improved load management forecasting. BREB customers also benefit from the convenience of basic self-service transactions such as bill payments, direct debit, payment arrangements, paperless billing, utility registration, usage inquiries and communications.
“Given complex customer needs and vital contracting, BREB needed solutions that simplify customer service and metering operations while providing more valuable connections to its customers,” said Rubaba Dowla, General Manager, Oracle Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. “The Oracle Utilities Customer-to-Meter platform will enable BREB to seamlessly expand smart meters over time and leverage advanced, centralized visibility into smart meter and device data across its network.”