Database Review Report: Support to Papua New Guinea Power Limited (PPL) on Data Management, Metering, and Customer Engagement

The SRUC TO aims to promote utility commercialization and equitable, effective reforms that will enhance the financial viability and long-term sustainability of developing countries' electricity systems. The SRUC TO is supporting Papua New Guinea Power Limited (PPL), PNG's fully integrated, state-owned electric utility, in its reform efforts to improve its operational and financial performance. The goal is to assist in the transformation of PPL into a financially viable institution capable of investing for future growth and effectively partnering with the private sector. The reform of PPL is also a key component of the Government of Papua New Guinea's (GoPNG) National Electrification Roll Out Plan (NEROP). The SRUC Work Assignment technical assistance is focused on helping PPL improve its engagement and relationships with its 8,000 largest customers, which represent 77 percent of its current revenue. Specific activities pursued will help expand and improve PPL's capacity to effectively manage customer information, strengthen business processes related to the collection and management of customer data, and utilize PPL customer information for billing and collections. Component 1 of the SRUC Work Assignment involves the review and cleansing of PPL's post-paid Large Customer database, with a focus on commercial/industrial customers, to identify gaps, issues, and misalignments. The review and cleansing process has been divided into three sub-components: Review and Database Cleansing, Customer Registration and Data Entry Training, and Advisory on Data Collection and its Management. The Database Review Report, Deliverable 1.1.3, concludes the activities for the SRUC team under sub-component 1.1. The report thoroughly reviews the findings and recommendations of the previous two deliverables, the Business Processes Impacting Data Quality (1.1.1) and the Customer Information Survey Methodology (1.1.2), and analyzes the customer information made available by PPL. A review of PPL's Gentrack CRM (or Gentrack System) implementation identified significant inaccuracies in the customer database due to a combination of technical, operational, and finance-related issues. This has resulted in a customer database that does not effectively support PPL in its efforts to improve revenue collection and operational improvements. To address these issues, the current customer database must be updated as soon as possible and supported by clear processes to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the data going forward. The report undertook the following steps to develop recommendations for PPL to inform the data cleansing process and to help make the data integrity improvements: reviewing the current Gentrack database, analyzing the customer information made available by PPL, and developing a detailed survey methodology to support the updating database cleansing process. The review of PPL's Gentrack CRM implementation identified several key areas for improvement, including physical data security, Gentrack application and interfaces, tariff implementation, Gentrack customer database, standard operating procedures and organizational alignment, and meter reading and billing. The report provides clear directions for the data cleansing processes and empowers PPL management in restructuring the current Revenue management program and planning customer engagement and meter management related project financing. The report concludes that a Gentrack database with the necessary and accurate data on post-paid customers, supported by an optimized meter reading and data entry process, would form the foundational basis to support PPL achieve greater financial and operational capabilities.