Conference Paper2020Cited by 4

Does Electric Prepaid Meters Decrease Payment Delinquency? Evidence from Data Centric Analysis of Electricity Consumption in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Shourav Bin Rabbani, Amin Ahsan Ali, Moinul Zaber

2020 IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP)

IEEE, pp. 1636–1639

DOI: 10.1109/tensymp50017.2020.9230814URL

Abstract

Prepaid electricity meters are favored by power distribution companies to improve revenue collection, debt prevention and ensure customer satisfaction. In this paper, we investigate changes in bill payments pattern of customers in Dhaka, Bangladesh who had switched from post to pre-payment meters. We collected postpaid bill and prepaid recharge payment data over there years. We specifically look into payment behavior of residential household customers to understand the effect of prepaid meters on payment delinquency. Analysis of postpaid bill indicate that at least 32% households skipped paying one or more bills over a period of one year. Households consuming 100-300 KWH accounts for almost 51% of the total delinquent households. After prepaid switch, approximately 46% of all households are making prepayments every month. 52% of households who skip paying bill and 45% of households who pay bill after due date, at least once, are now recharging every month. Overall the technological intervention shows considerable reduction of retail debts and a behavioral shift towards on time payment.

Keywords

  • prepaid electricity meters
  • Dhaka
  • residential electricity consumption

CCDS Authors

Amin Ahsan Ali, PhD
Amin Ahsan Ali, PhD

Amin Ahsan Ali, PhD

  • Director, AI/ML Wing

Professor

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Independent University, Bangladesh

Published at

ACL, CHI, UbiComp, ECCV, IJCAI, ECAI, WACV, IPSN, PAKDD, LREC, IJCNN, ICPR, ICIP, BEA, BLP, ICMLA, Scientific Reports, Scientific Data, Pattern Recognition, Information Sciences, Ad Hoc Networks, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, PLOS ONE

Research Interests

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

Moinul I Zaber, PhD
Moinul I Zaber, PhD

Moinul I Zaber, PhD

  • Director, HCI Wing
  • Supervisor, DS Wing

Professor

+2 more affiliations

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

Dhaka University

Published at

ICPR, HCII, JMIR

Research Interests

Computational Social Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Telecommunication Policy

References

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Cited By

  1. 1.Abebe D. Beyene, Marc Jeuland, Samuel Sebsibie, Sied Hassen, Alemu Mekonnen, Tensay H. Meles, Subhrendu K. Pattanayak, Thomas Klug. (2022). Pre-paid meters and household electricity use behaviors: Evidence from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Energy Policy, 170, 113251[10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113251]
  2. 2.Divyesh Divakar, H. M. Bharat, G. M. Dhanush. (2024). Reflecting on Technology: A Review of the Smart Mirror Advancements and Applications. Communications in computer and information science, 438–451[10.1007/978-3-031-50993-3_35]
  3. 3.Grace J. Mwanjala, Dr. Nyanjige Mayala, Dr. Ladis Komba. (2024). Contribution of Simplicity of Prepaid LUKU Meter Billing System on Property Tax Revenue Collection in Moshi Municipality, Tanzania. Indian Journal of Economics and Finance, 4(2), 35–41[10.54105/ijef.b2592.04021124]
  4. 4.Murshed Al Amin, MD. Jawad-Al-Mursalin Hoque, Zakia Nazzum, Md Abu Sayed, Sarker Tanveer Ahmed Rumee, Moinul Islam Zaber. (2023). Data Quality Assessment of Substation Data in Bangladesh: Insights from Handwritten Data Digitization. , 09, 1–6[10.1109/icps60393.2023.10428984]
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