In 2019, SPI collaborated with the DISCOM in Bihar to carry out the enhanced Rural Revenue Franchisee (eRRF) pilot to address poor metering, billing, and collection practices. The success of this program in Bihar led to SPI designing and piloting the Model Distribution Zone (MDZ) in Odisha in partnership with the local DISCOM. The pilot was designed to demonstrate the proof of concept of using women self-help groups to improve billing, metering and collection along with customer grievances redressal services across 640 villages catering to the electricity needs of 100k customers. The pilot engaged 160 rural women bill collection associates and ended 2020 by adding a load 5MW from new customers, reducing commercial losses for the DISCOM by 4% and generating additional revenue of $1mn.
