New technology will allow the power distribution company to read meters instantly over distance at its new central billing center.
TIRANA, Oct. 6 – CEZ, Albania’s power distribution company, says it is changing the way it will bill its 1 million customers, hoping to end thousands of complains over misread meters and default charges.
The Czech company which purchased the state-owned power distribution company, OSSH, says meters will be read differently and the bills will look differently as well.
All the changes are supported through new infrastructure and a national billing center which will receive data in real-time through the help of meter readers equipped with the same technology as cell phones.
“We are confident that we will win the trust of customers with these new standards,” says Josef Hesijek, director of CEZ Distribution.
Electronic meter readers, the company hopes, will end abuses as they cannot be rigged by consumers.
“It’s a mobile device like mobile phone. The data are transmitted automatically to our servers, and we process the data straightaway in real time. We’ve eliminated the human element,” says Dritan Xhenga, director of the billing at CEZ.
Another novelty is the way billing is set up. The new bill contains bar codes which can be easily read by computers. The company will also allow customers to make payments through the banks without the having the hassle to pay in person.
Billing and collecting the revenue for power consumed has been a major problem in Albania, where a large percentage of certain areas in the country had gotten accustomed to getting free power thanks to lack of willingness from the OSSH to crack down on consumers.
Things have changed since the privatization, and after some initial resistance, CEZ has been able to bring most customers in the fold. The new way to read meters is part of those efforts.
