MEA focus on service
Consumers have switched off electrical use as the result of political tension, prompting the capital's power-distribution utility to hold back on investing in new projects and focus instead on 24-hour customer service through 130 recently appointed "ambassadors".
As factories buckle their belts, power consumption goes down, Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) governor Pornthape Thunyapongchai said. The MEA will now put its fibre-optic network leasing project on the back burner and not focus too much on profits from new businesses, diverting its energy instead to improving customer services. The ambassadors project is a full-service programme, targeting business and industrial clients that use from 12 to 24 kilovolts. A centralised service centre has been set up to accommodate these 15,000 businesses. Available 24 hours a day, the ambassadors can advise on other matters, such as electricity savings and equipment maintenance. All information will be available online. And clients can book for services online. But the new initiatives are not without hiccups. Many local firms complained about the new requirement for components in electricity meters to be made abroad. Pornthape said that although some electronic parts must be brought in from overseas, the finished product was considered as made in Thailand because the final processing was done here. Following a discussion with the Auditor-General's Office on March 6 and earlier with the Comptroller-General's Department, the MEA has to require local content and open up its specifications when seeking bids. In the previous round, only two manufacturers qualified - Mahachak and Mitsubishi. The MEA has taken out some conditions from the specs in order to allow more suppliers to participate. The existing two bidders still can join the next round. According to an MEA source, electronic bidding for 655,395 automatic metres worth Bt460 million has been postponed from next Wednesday to June 21. Energy Reporters, The Nation
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