Integrated Billing System
At present, meter reading is taken manually and bills are issued manually across all Garrisons. PITC’s in house developed in Java ADF framework and Oracle 12c comprise of 12 decentralized and distributed applications and supported billing system that automate meter reading to cash cycle. This billing system is integrated billing system as it is integrated with smart metering and customer care model and comply with all commercial procedures as per NEPRA (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) issued consumers service manual. MiBS at present is being used to serve 37+ Million electricity consumers across Pakistan. Besides it is also implemented in AJ&K and Sunder Industrial Estate (SIE) and PITC is providing billing support for these applications 24*7 round the clock.
IBS Modul
The integrated billing system (IBS) comprise of four modules as Billing, Cash, DPS (data pre-processing system) and MIS. The business logic is pushed on Oracle in form of stored procedures, triggers, functions and packages where presentation layer comprise of JAVA based user interfaces. The cash for each billing cycle is collected by the banks, post offices, jazz cash, easy paisa, credit/debit cards etc. The MiBS is integrated with smart payment system (SPS) where payment gateway is extended to be integrated with all financial institutes for real time transaction and visibility for the consumers and management.
The month end processing steps during billing are the steps performed to close the current month billing and initializing the billing system DB schema for the next month. This process locks transactional (billing) ledger for any future update and serves as the single source of truth. As the month-end steps run after the billing; hence, starting from 2nd day of each month till 10th day the batch, month-end processing steps are compute intensive task as it is performed in batches. In order to ease the month end processing steps it is proposed to have month-end processing executed at the end of each day in compliance with cash transaction, billing adjustment and misc. postings for each consumer.
List of (IBS) Features
The current IBS application comprise of 10 decentralized and distributed applications and will provide with the following automated billing system features.
Sr. | Application Name | Application Feature | |
1. | Integrated Billing System (IBS) | Responsible for Billing of All Tariffs Notified by NEPRA | |
Provision of Billing at CC/Circle/Division Level | |||
Corporate Billing Facility | |||
Relational Database Design of IBS | |||
Integration with level 1 Application | |||
Deployed at MPLS Connectivity | |||
Integration with Legacy Cobol System Using Text Files | |||
Initial Take-up Procedure for Data Migration from Legacy Cobol System to New IBS System | |||
Desktop Modules for Fast Data Entry, Cash Scanning | |||
Barcode Base Scanning of Paid Bills | |||
Text Files Bills Integration with NADRA/Banks for Online Payments | |||
IBS-V2 can be Integrated with ERP, SAP, GIS and new Connection System. | |||
2. | Electricity New Connection (ENC) | Online New Connection, Change of Name, Change of Tariff & Load extension Application submission with required documents. | |
Online tracking of the Application status. | |||
Easy access (web base application) & working methodology for Officers & related staff hence promoting the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ motives of Ministry of Energy. | |||
Demand Notice’s Online Payment integration with Bank’s Payment Gateway (i.e.; Bank Alfalah etc.) | |||
Live Dashboards/Reports for Management’s various levels | |||
SMS alerts as Application moves along various stages. | |||
API base (JSON) integration and file base (csv) data export mechanism for Sending data to Revenue Officer for billing | |||
3. | Mobile Meter Reading System (MMRS) | Android based mobile meter reading application for meter reading staff. It is kept as risk mitigation plan if smart meter due to technical glitch or communication issue does not send reading. | |
Meter reading along with meter picture which is encrypted and is in Base 64. | |||
Provides an option to update the tenant information if there is change | |||
Offers an option for door to door survey foe cleansing of data | |||
4. | Consumer Profile (CP) | Provide Basic, Billing, Adjustment Meter Consumption Information to Field Offices | |
Application Provide Historical Data | |||
Historical Data Provide Consumer Wise | |||
User Rights Assigned Level Wise Users Like (CC, Circle, Subdivision and Division) | |||
API Integration with Other Applications to Provide Data on Consumer Profile Application to Field Offices. | |||
5. | Monthly/Daily Dashboard | Billing and Recovery (From different Angles e.g. Billing Month, Calendar Month, Due Date Wise etc.) | |
Arrears analysis reports | |||
Line Losses Reports | |||
Performance Reports w.r.t Bill Adjustments, Defective meters, Meter replacement etc. | |||
6. | Snap Audit System | Import Data Files and images | |
Generate report | |||
7. | IBS Duplicate Bill | Bill print, Bill download | |
API for Roshan Pakistan App | |||
Printing of four snaps on bill |
8. | Level 1 | Data loading from text files |
Online Data loading | ||
Snap Auditing | ||
Process Miscellaneous Transactions | ||
General Pre Billing | ||
MDI Pre Billing | ||
Un-posting Process of Miscellaneous Transactions | ||
Export Data to text files | ||
Export data to tables by DB link | ||
Change Main Date process | ||
DB Backup | ||
Delete main date and Meter reading | ||
9. | Consumer Information System | CIS_MR Application is used to load the TVX files in IBS System created from LEVEL-1 Application |
It also includes meter reading forms which is used for meter reading entry and meter reading corrections | ||
In the file menu there are two options for change password | ||
Meter Reading Menu have entry form menu | ||
Meter Reading Entry Selection Form, Select the Batch and the concerned Division | ||
The application supports several data loading forms of miscellaneous transactions i.e. CP-21C,CP-34C,CP- 136, CP137,CP-52, CP-138,CP-93,cp-52,CP-52T, CP-136D | ||
10. | IBS PC Bill Application | Upload of General Batches from live oracle database to local SQL Server database |
Upload of Industrial Batches from live oracle database to local SQL Server database | ||
Upload of Code Tables from Oracle Server | ||
Provision of Selected Bills Uploading for General Consumer Batch wise | ||
Provision of Selected Bills Uploading for Industrial Consumer Batch wise | ||
Multithreaded user interface | ||
Printing of consumers bills through batch / circle / division / sub division wise Reference No / Bill No Department Wise | ||
Provision of direct printing and PDF creation | ||
Client Server and local connectivity run in both modes. | ||
11. | Month End Reporting (MND) | MIS/MND Data Preparation/Processing/Reports |
Provide Historical Data and Current Billing Month Data. | ||
Application Integration with CP and Billing System. | ||
Generate All Level Reports like (Consumer Level, Feeder Level, Govt. Level, Private, Region, Sub Division, All Pakistan Level and Company Level). | ||
Show Errors in red on Interface and Exception Recording. |