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PLN tells Greater Jakarta customers to report electricity usage by email, WhatsApp
Customers using the postpaid electricity service are required to send their ID number and a picture of their electricity meter showing usage in kilowatt-hour (kWh). Such information should be sent via email or WhatsApp chat to a PLN office in their respective region, which will be used by the company to calculate electricity bills for April.
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A technician of state-owned electricity firm PLN checks on electricity meters in Pesakih low-cost apartment in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta on November 15, 2017. (JP/Bangkit Jaya Putra)
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tate-owned electricity firm PLN has urged its customers in Greater Jakarta area to report their electrical usage to the company by themselves, following the government’s appeal for people to keep physical distance between others to prevent COVID-19 transmission
Customers using the postpaid electricity service are required to send their ID number and a picture of their electricity meter showing usage in kilowatt-hour (kWh). Such information should be sent via email or WhatsApp chat to a PLN office in their respective region, which will be used by the company to calculate electricity bills for April.
This policy does not apply to customers using a prepaid electricity service.
PLN normally sends personnel to check electricity meters in each house to assess electricity usage. The data is then used by the company to calculate electricity bills for each customer.
However, the social-distancing policy in curbing COVID-19 transmission has forced the electricity firm to not send personnel to check meters.
“If they fail to send such information [by Sunday], customers will be charged the average amount for the previous three months,” PLN Greater Jakarta Distribution Unit spokesperson Dita Artsana said, as quoted by kompas.com.
If the average bill does not match the actual usage, she added, corrections would be made in the following month.
This policy of self-reporting is only available in Greater Jakarta. For customers outside this area, the PLN would charge the average of the previous three months’ usage.
“This policy is implemented so customers don’t have to interact with our technicians, in line with the government’s appeal to stay at home and for physical distancing,” PLN senior executive vice president for business and customer service Yuddy Setyo Wicaksono said in a statement. (aly)
