Visakhapatnam: The estimated 52 lakh consumers of the AP Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited will soon be able to pay their electricity bills at home. Thanks to an initiative of the APEPDCL, consumers can pay their bills to representatives of the Apna CSC centres, who visit their homes.
The service was recently launched in some parts of Vizag and other districts that fall into the APEPDCL’s limits.
APEPDCL CMD Revu Mutyala Raju said, “We are treading with caution in initiating the home payment services through Apna CSC centres as it involves a large consumer base and crores of rupees. We collected about Rs 40 lakh through various Apna CSC centres until March 16 on an experimental basis,” he added.
The home-payment services work on a cloud-based collaborative system and the Apna CSC centres have to recharge their wallets before collecting the bills.
“We are making sure that the payments reflect on the billers’ system immediately and send an immediate SMS and e-mail reminder to the consumer,” he said.
“We recently extended our services through Andhra Bank ATMs and we are in talks with other banks too. Soon, the online payment portfolio of EPDCL will swell to provide superior services to consumers,” he added.
The APEPDCL receives only 4.9 per cent of its payments through online mode, which has caused a big dent in the recently released discom rankings in the online payment parameter.
The APEPDCL also drafted plans to popularise its recently released app, which has a consumer base of 40,000. “Thanks to the Eastern Power App, the percentage of online payments crossed 4.9 per cent: It was 3 per cent earlier. We are now targeting 21 per cent through the Apna CSC wallets,” added Mr Raju.
No power cut this summer: APEPDCL CMD
There would be no power cuts or power holidays in these summer months, said APEPDCL CMD Revu Mutyala Raju. Speaking to the media here on Thursday, Mr Raju informed that they are expecting a peak demand of 155 million units a day and they are ready with more capacity than the demand called for.
“The discoms of Andhra Pradesh, APEPDCL and APSPDCL, stood first in the rankings given by the Ministry of Power in terms of clearance of new collections as well redressal of consumer grievances,” Mr Raju said.
