Developing a complementary mobile & web-based application for recording and sharing electricity customer meter reading and power incidence data. case Study: Langata Constituency, Nairobi County, Kenya.

Abstract

Energy is an essential factor of the economy, the national security of a nation as well as standard of living. Kenya’s Vision 2030 identifies energy as one of the major enablers of infrastructure development under the socio-economic pillar. Kenya is undergoing a rapid development stage in relation to its domestic energy demands. The current government demanded that Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) accelerate electricity connectivity within the country; this called for a totally new approach in the connectivity, meter reading and billing model within the electricity distribution company. Manual reading of power meters is indeed a time-consuming exercise, KPLC meter readers face a number of challenges while trying to gain access to customer postpaid meters in the field. These challenges range from unrestrained animals, inclement weather conditions, or meters located behind a locked fence and buildings. On the other hand, the company emergency teams also face a number of challenges while resolving power incidences reported by the customers. One of the main challenge includes locating the incident areas based on the vague description from the customers and hence lack of proper preparation (with the right equipment) to handle the reported incident. The growth in the telecommunication sector has enabled a positive willingness by power consumers to volunteer information and embrace new innovative approaches being implemented by the company. This study seeks to take advantage of this with the main objective of developing a complementary mobile and web-based application for recording and sharing electricity customer meter reading and power incidence data. The objective was achieved and the study was able to develop an electrical network geodatabase using Open Source software, PostgreSQL /PostGIS as the application database, a mobile application developed in Android studio using Java Programming Language, and a web application developed in the Node.JS environment using JavaScript. The application was published and tested within the case study area of Langata constituency in Nairobi County. The mobile application meter reading and power incidence reporting platform is aimed at improving customer billing process and timely resolution of incidences, ultimately customer satisfaction on service delivery. It is recommended that this application is replicated through all the other constituencies in Kenya to support meter reading and power outage management in the company. Other utility companies can use this application to efficiently improve service delivery to customers. These can range from water and sewerage companies, telecommunication companies to oil and gas distribution companies among others.