Sector Reform and Utility Commercialization (SRUC) Task Order (TO) Support to Papua New Guinea Power Limited (PPL) on Meter Management, Billing, and Collections Deliverable 4.2 Customer Engagement Workshop

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. In November 2018, the United States joined with international donors from Australia, Japan, and New Zealand to form the PNG Electrification Partnership (PEP) with the goal of supporting Papua New Guinea's efforts to increase electricity access to 70 percent of households by 2030 through its National Electrification Roll Out Plan (NEROP). As part of the U.S. Government's initial efforts under PEP, USAID has tasked SRUC with providing technical assistance to PNG Power Limited (PPL), the country's fully integrated, state-owned electric utility. Through the "Support to PPL on Data Management, Metering, and Customer Engagement" Work Assignment, the SRUC team is assisting PPL's operational and financial reform efforts so that it is better positioned to add new customers, invest for future growth, and partner with the private sector. The Work Assignment is focused on helping PPL improve its engagement and relationships with its 8,000 large commercial and industrial customers, which represent 77 percent of its current revenue. The SRUC team has developed a Large Customer Engagement Strategy (LCES) to guide PPL's outreach to its largest and most important customers going forward. The LCES outlines leading practices for engagement with commercial and industrial customers and provides a roadmap for PPL to begin to implement these practices. The LCES is targeted exclusively towards large commercial and industrial (C&I) customers in Papua New Guinea's private sector. A three-day workshop was conducted for 7 members of PPL's Retail Division, structured around the various topics presented in the LCES. The workshop included instructive components and discussed case studies exhibiting the benefits of effective, formalized customer engagement. The SRUC team provided a ranking method based on annual or monthly power consumption, which is closely tied to annual revenue generated. By analyzing large customer billing data, the group of 7800+ large (C&I) customers can be segmented into smaller groups, based on business type and customer service needs. The training sessions covered different aspects of LCES, as well as interactive sessions to help PPL staff better understand how to undertake implementation. The training was developed with the assumption that the LCES scope is targeted exclusively towards large commercial and industrial (C&I) customers in Papua New Guinea's private sector. The activities recommended to PPL in the LCES are designed to work in parallel with other ongoing activities at the utility and align with the objectives of PPL's 2018 Reform Agenda. The SRUC team tailored its approach to the new learning environment by structuring and sequencing sessions to be virtually engaging and connect with the learners in as similar a way as possible to an on-site training. The training was reduced to three-hour afternoon sessions, instead of all-day blocks, which allows the learners to focus more effectively on the subject matter. The SRUC team conducted the three training sessions, one each on February 23, 24, and 25, with PPL attendees coming from the Customer Engagement Team (CET) within the company's Retail Unit.