Meralco to devise new algorithm for power customers
To better understand the consumption pattern and the needs of its customers, power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be devising a reinforced algorithm that shall become the basis of data analysis on its subscribers’ service requirements and preferences.
Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan has indicated that ‘keeping pace with technology’ even in their data analytics is the way to go for the power utility.
“We would be able to know the usage pattern, behavior and needs of our customers,” he stressed, while noting that an upgrade in their information technology (IT) system is definitely forthcoming.
The distribution firm has noted that such will be a significant component of its “innovative solutions in the power industry for customer service advancement.”
An algorithm could set a pattern for collection of information and figures which will then be the basis for data analytics so a utility firm or service provider could flesh out the specific needs or demand of customers.
Pangilinan has emphasized that in the process of collating all of these sensitive data from end-users, they would strictly adhere to ‘strict privacy policy’ when it comes to sharing information and will also guard their IT systems against threats of hacking.
After the Snowden-linked controversy in America, hacking concerns have become a foreboding discussion among experts as to the advanced technology-laden future of the energy world.
Meralco at its recently-concluded MTech 2015 forum has set the path on “the creation of a future that opens new opportunities for innovative solutions to increase consumer interaction, build consumer empowerment, improve energy efficiency, integrate renewables and distributed resources.”
The others shall delve on “expanding opportunities for electric transformation”, such as the envisioned commercial deployment of electric vehicles in the country.
According to Meralco chief technology adviser Gavin D. Barfield, “technology will play an integral part in enabling this transformation.”
He shared that “in the past years, Meralco has put new technologies into its system, but we know there is still more to be done,” emphasizing that in the coming years, the utility firm “will definitely employ disruptive technologies to achieve the vision that we have dared to imagine.”
Marthyn Cuan, vice president and chief information officer of Meralco, has added that “technology is a powerful instrument to differentiate Meralco Business from the rest as we engage and empower customers.”