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Northern Ireland Keypad Trial - A Case Study
With approximately 100,000 consumers on prepayment, Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) have been using magnetic card type prepayment meters since 1990.
Increased operating costs, concerns about security and continued pressure from the Regulator and Consumer Groups over 'Self Disconnection' prompted NIE to look for an alternative prepayment solution. AMR was considered but was deemed to be too expensive as was Smartcard which had the additional concerns over reliability and fraud.
Earlier this year discussions between NIE and PRI took place after a presentation by PRI on their Liberty 'Credit Management' meter and a decision was taken to trial the system.
The key features that attracted NIE to the Liberty system where:
These are all important features. Token prepayment meters require complex and expensive vending equipment to program and update their tokens. In addition, tokens themselves are an expensive addition and add complexity to what is an already complicated system. Token failures or non-acceptance are regular occurrences resulting in frequent token replacement and site visits all of which adds to the cost of the system which inevitably are then passed on to the consumers.
Before proceeding with the trial both NIE and PRI where keen to judge consumers reaction to what in the UK is a totally innovative approach to prepayment. To this end the services of a Market Research company where employed to establish the prevailing views of a wide cross-section of the consumer base to a keypad pay-as-you-go system via a series of focus groups.
In addition PRI where also interested in the views of NIE's telephone enquiry bureau staff who currently deal with prepayment queries so these too where included in the research. Thus the following categories of people involved in the research:
The results from the groups was varied, however one common factor among all the groups (except students), was that following initial hostility to the keypad concept, a 360 degree turnaround was evident by the end of the presentation following the introduction of the benefits and a "hands-on" exercise.
Most consumers involved in the research seemed aware of problems with the existing the magnetic card system.
Though as stated earlier, there where some negative reactions to keying in a vend code via a keypad, in the main, the majority of these where from non-Powercard users and virtually everyone involved in the survey coped adequately with entering a 20 digit vend code. The majority of comments seemed to focus on the aesthetics of the meter itself (display and pushbuttons too small etc.) many of which had already been changed in the final design of the meter.
Consumers liked the idea of being able to obtain a repeat transaction in the event of a lost receipt and also liked the idea of being able to carry out a transaction via a telephone. A lot of criticism was also levelled in general at the positions of most metering within households and in particular at the awkwardness of trying to credit prepayment metering situated in an outside boxes, under stairs or at high level in hallways. When the Freedom remote keypad/display unit was introduced into the discussions it was greeted with immediate enthusiasm by all the focus groups. The facility of having a remote consumer display anywhere they wanted in the household far outweighed any concerns they had over entering a numeric code into the meter and indeed many stated that they be far more likely to keep an eye on their available credit and consumption with a such a display facility available.
Based on this feedback NIE implemented a trial of the Liberty metering system. A initial quantity of meters have been installed complete with remote 'Freedom' keypads enabling consumers to enter codes and access displays from a designated room inside the household. The system has proven to be popular and NIE have now placed an order for a further units, increasing the size of the trial quantity. It is proposed that the results of the trial will be evaluated in early 1999 with a view to a full roll-out in 1999.
Update 2005
Initial roll-out of 30,000 meters was completed to plan and follow on orders for an additional 145,000 have been placed and delivered taking the project to 175,000 with a further 20,000 going through procurment.
For further information please contact:
Keith Tait
Business Development Manager Payment Systems
07717861276
meters@pri.co.uk
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