A new convenience: the MobileAP

March 23, 2016

Electricity consumers can now check their latest bills on their smartphones as AboitizPower introduces the MobileAP.

The MobileAP is an online application that makes waiting time for the printed bill to be delivered to the consumers’ doorsteps so yesterday. With this new app, not only can the consumer check the latest bill, he can also check out the previous 12 months of electric consumption thru a chart that shows kilowatt consumption and its equivalent monetary value.

“This will hopefully lessen inquiries on billing since a bulk of the calls coming in at the call center are queries about those,” Raymund Banaag, Aboitiz Power Distribution Utility Information Technology & Systems Group (APDU ITSG) Solution Specialist, says.

The MobileAP is available for free in both Android and IOS phones. All those who are being served by distribution utilities under Aboitiz Power can use the app. One can even register and manage multiple accounts under the Visayan Electric Company (VECO), Davao Light Power Corp. (DLPC), Cotabato Light Power Corp. (CLPC), Subic Enerzone, Mactan Enerzone and/or Balamban Enerzone.

To register, just provide the first 10 digits of your account ID and choose an option of validation by providing either the last bill payment and corresponding bill amount or last payment date and paid amount. Consumers can use details from the last two billing statements for this. Once validated, a registration code will be sent via email. The user shall use this code to finish the app enrollment.

To help first time users, there is a guided tour of the app. If needed, one can also directly request a PDF copy of the eBill with the touch of a button.

“The mobile application initially originated at VECO when they presented the idea last year. It was a very good one so Aboitiz Power is incorporating it in all the distribution utilities that we operate,” Banaag recalls.

The MobileAP project started last April 2015 and opened for a test run with the arrival of the new year.

“The app has been running since January this year. We are encouraging all the employees to install it and test the system. Comments and suggestions are highly welcome,” Banaag adds.

There are currently around 50 to 100 installs of the app according to GooglePlay. In VECO alone, only around 15% of the entire employee population has experienced this convenient app as of press time.

To develop this convenience for consumers, Aboitiz Power has already shelled out around half a million pesos.

“The MobileAP project consists of two phases. The first phase, which is up on the Internet now, orients consumers about their billing,” Banaag explains.

The second phase, which will be up on a staggered basis this year, will showcase power outage schedules, enable consumers to report an outage and contact the distribution utility, calculate appliance consumption, look up payment centers and see energy saving tips.

The payment center portion will include authorized collection banks and collection partners while the display info of scheduled power outages will be linked to the Planned Power Outage Advisory (PPOA) system. The power outage report will also be more accurate as consumers can pinpoint locations thru GPS coordinates. Meanwhile, the appliance calculator will be able to give customers a rough estimate of their electricity usage. The updating of rates and appliances list will be done through web service connecting to the database.

Users can also send queries/complaints directly to the Corporate Communication Department in the second phase. This comes with a photo feature for a clearer description of complaints.

For any concerns on the MobileAP, users can send an email to

apdumobile@aboitiz.

com

.