ZETDC, Inhemeter, and EEU delegates that were part of the benchmark visit
A delegation from the Ethiopia Electric Utility (EEU) visited ZETDC to benchmark on the Inhemeter prepayment metering project and the SmartVend system. The 5-day visit was made possible and facilitated by Inhemeter. EEU sought to learn from ZETDC on best practice on the replacement of conventional meters with prepaid meters hence the benchmark visit to ZETDC . Speaking in his opening remarks, ZETDC Acting Managing Director, Engineer Abel Gurupira highlighted the long term need for Africa to be one united continent, where countries can easily trade, collaborate, and exchange notes. Ethiopia has a total generation capacity of 43 173 GWh against an energy demand of 13 923 GWh meaning that the country has excess power for export which Southern Africa could utilize. In his remarks, the Managing Director gave an account of ZETDC’s transition, from using Landis & Gyr, Suprima Vending system, to Itron Eclipse Enterprise Edition (3E) which later upgraded to IPMP. “At a certain point we discovered that we need to further improve the vending system to include elements like multi-currency and simultaneous transactions to cope with demands from the increasing customer base”, he said. The utility then upgraded to the Smart-vend system which has a capacity to accommodate a huge customer base as witnessed during benchmark visits which ZETDC did where Inhemeter implemented SmartVend.
The EEU Commercial Director Mr. Samrawit Yiberha Gebregiorgis, said the purpose of their benchmark visit was to have an insight on the prepaid meter functionality, tariff application on the prepaid metering system, integration of the prepaid metering system with other business applications like SAP, digital payment systems etc., energy audit, theft management, communication of the meter with the CIU among other areas of interest. The delegation was also keen to know the challenges faced in the various areas and the mitigation factors.
The knowledge exchange engagement involved holistic detailed presentations of the prepaid metering process flow from meter management to installation, registration, billing, vending and customer end-use. To make the learning complete, various site visits were conducted for the EEU delegates to gain practical experience on the operation of our systems. These included visits to the Meter Test department, National Control Centre, the Wynne Street banking hall to witness vending, and one of the customer service centres, Harare Region’s CBD depot, Third party vending system at Spar Five Avenue, a couple of client premises to get insights on customer experience with the system, and last but not least, a visit to the ZETDC National Contact Centre to see how client queries are handled.
In his closing remarks, ZETDC acting Finance Director Mr. F. Mazana expressed gratitude to ZETDC for hosting one of Africa’s largest Power Utilities. EEU Commercial Director Mr. S Gebregiorgis also acknowledged the good hospitality they received, and how ZETDC went all out in their presentations which surpassed their expectations. “This was indeed a worthy visit”, he said.
ZETDC embarked on the prepaid metering project in 2009.
