From late April to today, we were engaged in a major push on getting the findings of how ICTs could help improve electricity customer relations out to regulators and other stakeholders in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. This is not as simple as telecom which is a central subject in all countries. In India, we (and our partners) succeeded in attracting regulators from three important states (Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra) to the half-day dissemination event. In Bangladesh, the Chair of the Bangladesh Electricity Regulatory Commission chaired the event and was present throughout. Today, we had a three hour exchange of ideas with the Director General and senior staff of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka. .
In many cases, the research findings show that relatively simple solutions exist if the potential of ICT is utilized. The distribution companies are best placed to implement these solutions. But the regulators can nudge them toward better treatment of their customers, through actions such as setting supplier codes and customer charters and ensuring that accurate information is supplied with regard to implementation.
In Sri Lanka, our interactions with the discos showed islands of good practice. The challenge now is to make the rest of the system adopt those good practices.
The slides from the India presentation can be found HERE.
The slides used in the Sri Lanka presentation can be found HERE.
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