The electricity industry undergoes comprehensive digital transformation, moving towards a modern electronic payment ecosystem

EVN General Director Nguyen Anh Tuan reports at the meeting - Photo: VGP/NB

On the morning of May 17, at the second meeting of the Government's Steering Committee on science , technology, innovation, digital transformation and Project 06 chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh - Head of the Steering Committee, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, General Director of Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) reported on the results of digital transformation in electronic payments and electronic transactions.

According to Mr. Tuan, in 2021, EVN issued a master plan for digital transformation within the Group, with the goal of making EVN operate according to the digital enterprise model by 2025. By the end of 2024, EVN will basically complete the set goals, specifically the digital transformation results will reach "Level 4" with a score of 81.89%.

Currently, most of the Group's activities are handled in a digital environment with many digital solutions and digital technologies such as AI, BigData, BI, IoT and automation, and electronic signatures are comprehensively applied. Comprehensive digital transformation helps the management and operation of production and business to be timely, fast, accurate and transparent.

"Comprehensive transformation as well as thorough application of digital solutions and new digital technologies have helped EVN save costs estimated at over VND3,000 billion/year. In particular, non-cash payment is one of the key tasks, associated with efforts to modernize business operations and customer services," Mr. Tuan emphasized.

Going into specific solutions that have been implemented, the General Director of EVN said that since 2011, EVN has proactively developed a project to apply electronic invoices. After a period of research and testing, by 2015, EVN had deployed electronic invoices at all Power Corporations. In 2017, EVN coordinated with the State Bank to unify the connection standards between EVN and the banking sector. This has helped the Group expand its payment and electronic payment capabilities nationwide.

The Group has also digitized the entire Electricity Service Supply Process as a premise for EVN to provide 100% level 4 online electricity services in 2022, allowing customers to carry out all procedures without having to go directly to the transaction counter.

In addition, EVN focuses on modernizing the metering system, which is the core infrastructure for implementing electronic payments, monitoring consumption and managing customers in real time. By the end of 2024, 32 provinces and cities will have achieved 100% electronic meters. Currently, nationwide, the remote metering rate has reached over 95.5%.

Standardization and national data interconnection

According to the EVN General Director, the Group has closely coordinated with Department C06, Ministry of Public Security and Department of Administrative Procedure Control, Government Office to build and standardize the connection between EVN's system and national databases such as: Population database, National database on business registration, Electronic invoice system of the General Department of Taxation, electronic identification platform VNeID. In particular, EVN has integrated all electricity bill payment services into the National Public Service Portal, allowing people to look up bills, pay electricity bills and track the progress of processing electricity records online with just one account.

EVN's customer care applications have fully integrated functions such as: Online electricity bill payment, bill lookup, electricity consumption history tracking... Providing transparent, intuitive and easy-to-understand information has helped customers grasp the electricity usage situation of their family and adjust their usage behavior more effectively and economically. EVN has also built a system to provide online electricity consumption data with flexible frequency, allowing periodic updates once a day, or for customers using large electricity, updates can be made every 4 hours.

According to Mr. Tuan, in 2024, the rate of customers making non-cash electricity payments across EVN will reach 97.19%, an increase of 2.31 percentage points compared to 2023. The rate of non-cash electricity bill value will reach 99.39%, an increase of 1.08 percentage points compared to the previous year. From a payment system that was mainly based on cash and direct transactions, EVN has gradually formed a synchronous, modern and popular non-cash payment ecosystem, contributing to realizing the goal of national digital transformation in the field of essential public services.

Regarding the future direction, the EVN General Director said that the Group will continue to standardize and connect data with the National Database, which is an important foundation to improve the quality of electricity service provision in the coming period. It is expected that by the end of May 2025, EVN will complete the reconciliation and synchronization of customer data with the National Population Database, thereby serving the work of identifying customers with Citizen Identification Cards (CCCD).

For corporate customers, EVN will identify them by tax codes and connect them with the National Database on Business Registration. At the same time, it will continue to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to exploit land data, thereby shortening document requirements, reducing administrative procedures and aiming to provide electricity services that are increasingly convenient, transparent and friendly to customers.

Anh Tho

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/nganh-dien-chuyen-doi-so-toan-dien-huong-toi-he-sinh-thai-thanh-toan-dien-tu-hien-dai-102250517115550534.htm