Questions/Answers

Access to electricity is a pre-requisite for socio-economic development of a country. Providing electricity is a public service in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), through 80 rural electric co-operatives (PBS), has been providing electricity to 85%people who live in rural areas. But, getting electricity was not so easy in traditional system. It was very inefficient, time consuming, and unjustifiably expensive. It also required frequent visits to PBS offices and often, speed money. The consumer had to face hassle for unethical involvement of middlemen. To address these problems, a revolutionary initiative has been taken by BREB named Palli Bidyut (Rural Electric) Online Connection System. This innovative project intends to ensure faster, transparent, cost effective and hassle-free electric connection process for rural people of Bangladesh with the following basic targets: a) Connection process will be completed in 5 (five) steps (in place of 49 in traditional system); b) Consumers will requireno physical visit(s) to PBS offices; c) PBS official(s) will payonly one visit to consumer end to install and connect meters; d) Connection process will be completed within 1-3 days; e) All payments within connection process will be payable through online mobile banking channels.

The initiative is aligned and also relevant to the criteria within the selection category 4: Prompting digital transformation in public sector institutions. This innovative system uses state-of-the-art technologies and has transformed electric connection process of aforementioned institution from paper-based manual system to digital one. It significantly improves the efficiency, accountability, transparency and overall effectiveness of the institution. It also ensures equal access to service ensuring direct engagement of the consumers. The integration of online and mobile payment channels with this initiative extensively promotes digital cooperation and financial inclusion of the marginal people.

The initiative is significantly contributing in achieving SDG agenda 2030 by: a) Ensuring universal access to affordable and modern energy services by providing easy electric connection at a lower cost (SDG-7.1); b) Increasing agricultural productivity providing easy electricity access for farming (SDG-8.2); c) Increasing access to information and communication technology within the Rural Electrification(RE) ecosystem involving more than 80% (125+ Million) of the population (SDG-9.8); d) Ensuring equal opportunities for poor & rich, powerful & common people related to the connection process of the RE system through a transparent, accountable and inclusive process introduced and facilitated by system (SDG-10.3).

In Bangladesh context, overcoming aforementioned hassles,access to electricity for the poor and marginal people was very challenging. It’s needless to mention the hurdles of women-headed households in this situation. On the other hand, traditional electrification system in Bangladesh was crippled by rampant corruption, inefficiency and lack of good governance. This initiative significantly addressed the inequality and exclusion in terms of getting public services. Regardless of economic and social status, everyone can get the electric connection they applied for, equally without any hassle. Rural women can get the service easily from cyber café or union digital centers nearby. The Palli Bidyut (Rural Electric) Online Connection System facilitates the authority to monitor system users involved in electric connection process via interactive dashboards. The consumers can also track the progress of their application through the online platform. It ensures accountability, transparency, integrity within the PBS administration and reduces the gap between service seekers and providers preventing the involvement of middlemen. The system expedites the BREB goal of “electricity for all by 2019” through faster connection.

Most of the electric utility in Bangladesh provides electric connection through a rigorous manual process which requires a lot of paper work and physical visits for both service seeker and providers. In this context, BREB has taken unique initiative tha tfacilitates getting electric connection easily using modern technologies. BREB has introduced the unique and innovative management system named Transformer Maintenance and Load Management (TMLM) system which performs Technical Survey Report (TSR) and reduces manual steps. The online service mechanism has experienced better service delivery with reduced time, cost and visit (TCV).

This system is original in Bangladesh context because TMLM is a unique system that back-calculates the energy consumption (KWH) and provides load status (KW) of transformers installed in distribution networks as output. Upon using the output of TMLM, this system determines the eligibility of respective transformer to meet the demanded load of consumer and automatically suggests the approving authority. The stakeholders of the system use dashboards according to the delegation of authority. After payment of incurred charges via online mobile banking channel, system automatically issue customer meter order (CMO) and PBS officials install the energy meter to the consumer-end immediately.

The technology platform including the system architecture developed for the purpose has been designed in such a way, this system can be transferred to other similar and relevant context. For instance, similar organizations and geographical locations like developing countries can deploy this system for similar purposes. In Bangladesh, urban power distribution companies (DESCO, BPDB) are trying to adopt the similar system for their own customer on-boarding services. The system could be easily replicated in southern countries as it is a frugal innovation. The TMLM system could be relevant to even developed countries.

The system is developed by in-house team of BREB. Thus, it was not required to spend mentionable amount for human resources. However, a little amount was invested to deploy the system for purchasing hardware infrastructure (approximately USD 50000). The development team consists of 6 members designated as team leader, system analyst, software developers and quality assurance expert. Moreover, a central team of 4 members is involved in supporting the system on-demand. An existing field level team is trained up and mobilized by development team for further assistance.

Yes, the project is sustainable. This initiative is very organic within the BREB and it will not be dependent on external factors, which is important for sustainability. As the project requires very little financial resources and BREB is capable to mobilize them easily, thus the project will sustain. During the project, in-house skilled human resources have been developed which will contribute in further growth of the project through capacity building initiatives. Besides, the growing demands from consumer side will make the project thrived in the future. Since the system does not recognize boundary of economic and social classes, everyone gets equal opportunity in terms of electric connection service. Reducing corruption and extra cost makes the service affordable and popular to them. The electricity further contributes in economic and social development of the marginalized rural people by allowing better opportunities in education, health and agriculture sector. Thus, it has impact on social and economic sustainability of the communities. The online system significantly reduces use of paper in daily office work. BREB has made the PBS less paper office and contributes in environmental sustainability. In short, the project directly and indirectly covers economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability.

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Access to Information (a2i) Program under ICT Division of Bangladesh formally evaluated the system. The study was both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Sample survey method was followed to collect primary data using random sampling technique. Using semi-structured questionnaire, 374 beneficiaries from 21 districts of Bangladesh were interviewed. After the data collection phase, statistical analysis was conducted through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS). This study also revealed outcome findings such as the benefits of citizen through establishing online initiative, and comparative TCV analysis of manual verses online system, and recommendations for further betterment.

In this evaluation study, both qualitative and quantitative typed indicators were used with nominal and interval scale of measurement to perform statistical analysis.Comparative TCV related indicators i.e. ‘numbers of required days’, ‘total cost in BDT’ and ‘numbers of physical office visits’ were used to measure the quantitative aspect of both manual and online system for electric connection process. Benefits, challenges, unethical involvement of middlemen, availability of online payment option, satisfactory label and reporting facility of the application progress to the end user etc were used to measure the qualitative aspect comparing manual and online system during electric connection process.

In terms of benefit through establishing online initiative, most of the respondents i.e. 85% mentioned that online system required less time, 66% got connection in low cost and 99% got progress status through SMS and online dashboard.Comparative TCV analysis exhibited that most of the respondents i.e. 48% needed one month time, 39% required 3 visits and 34% spent 800-2,000 BDT for getting the electric connection through manual system. On the other hand, in online system most of the respondents i.e. 45% needed only five days, 55% required no visit and 64% spent only 500-700 BDT for getting the connection.

All types of stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in different series of interactive workshop, seminar, interview and meeting to study out their mindset and expectations about the electric service. A dedicated team of public servants of BREB was involved in every stages of this development. In planning phase, stakeholders i.e. rural consumer, PBS officials, Union Digital Center (UDC)/local cyber cafe entrepreneurs, payment gateway representatives, and village electricians attended and expressed their expectations in workshops. The primary beneficiaries of the system, rural consumers dreamed of hassle-free electric connection within 3 days at a low cost without physical office visit. To ensure good service design, the PBS officials as back-office users, payment gateway experts along with the BREB team analyzed the requirements, developed accordingly and finally implemented the system. After implementation, user acceptance test was performed by PBS officials, rural consumers and other stakeholders. In piloting phase, a training session was conducted for stakeholders and launched the system. The system was evaluated through several field visits to rural areas. The project collected feedback and opinions from the stakeholders, re-engineered the system and replicated to other regions.

The initiative faced different challenges like resistance from different corrupted groups, incompatible policies, misperception, technical difficulties, etc. Awareness building and behavioral changes resolved many of them. It re-engineered the layout of proposed e-services based on collective field study. In future, it will be integrated into national database of election commission to verify consumer identity and electricity licensing board to check the validity of freelancer wiring inspector license. To ensure comprehensive payment, it will be integrated to EKPAY, a digital payment platform of ICT Division.