RPA in Energy and Utilities Industry

RPA meets Energy and Utilities

Energy and utilities is a customer-centric industry, as every individual is dependent on these services for their daily needs. Considering the high number of transactions that take place every day, the probability of human error also increases, which is why Robotic Process Automation (RPA) becomes necessary to help the companies to manage the transactions efficiently and to enhance the customer experience – an often-ignored aspect of the industry.

RPA helps in automating processes requiring less turnaround time (TAT), have high-volume transactions, or have a repeatable process that is workflow dependent. Some of these processes include – Payroll, human resource, and IT backup operations.

Benefits of using RPA in the Energy and Utilities industry

Saves cost by performing activities of several FTEs
Minimizes errors and improves the turnaround time in resolving customer issues
Helps in scaling up quickly during disasters and crisis
Adapts quickly to constant policy changes in the industry

Use of RPA in the Energy and Utilities industry

Meter Reading Validation

Utility companies read the meter before billing the customer for consumption. Sometimes a human error could lead to generating an incorrect bill, which could result in overcharging or undercharging the consumer. Errors like these have serious consequences on the reputation of the company. Thus, it becomes even more important to have the meter reading validated before generating the bill. Utility companies have realized the potential risk of incorrect meter reading or validation, which is why they have started integrating RPA in the process. RPA validates the meter reading of the consumer and processes it ahead if it is correct. In case of an error, it flags the issue to the concerned department, who resolves it. This reduces the burden on the meter reading validation team and the number of complaints that arise out of wrong billing.

New account setup

Every organization follows a strict process to set up a new account. Sometimes, the team that processes the new account request overlooks certain factors in the process while granting permission to the consumer. This could sometimes lead to granting permission to even those who do not meet all the requirements set by the organization. RPA helps the team in reducing such errors by checking the information provided by the consumer against the set rules and processes the setup request only if all the fields match the rules. In case of an issue, the software program flags it to the concerned department who then resolves it.