MRG updates its methodology in order to continue providing its customers with a reliable service, based on rigour, quality, transparency, accessibility and security
Security and fraud
This year, a methodology for proactive detection of fraud has been implemented, based on the analysis of consumption in geographically similar areas. A protocol of action in the field has also been established and a software application developed for managing fraud.
All of this allows us, in turn, to draw on the knowledge and experience of our technicians, who carry out field work on a daily basis in order to track domestic and industrial fraud, as they are the eyes of the company. For that reason, it is important for the technicians to have all the relevant information available on the supply situation (installation of meter, termination, shut-down etc.) so that they will be able to find out, quickly and easily, if the installations on the premises they visit are coherent with the records on our information systems. If not, this tool will be able to record an operation in which the type of anomaly identified is reported (tampering with the meter, drill holes etc.) and the action taken at the time by the inspector.
Thanks to this new technology, more than 13,000 operations have been identified and carried out in the field over different campaigns (industrial estates, specific locations, restaurants, energy management, etc.). Furthermore, very useful information has been collected in order to improving fraud detection processes in the future.
Meanwhile, Madrileña encourages reactive fraud detection by its contractors or by its own customers. To do this we created a space in our website for civil complaints concerning cases of manipulation of installations that put safety at risk. We also developed our own app, called FRAPPE, for the online reporting of manipulated installations and possible fraud. Currently, all MRG contractors use it.
Both initiatives have enabled more than 1,100 contrasted frauds and recovered 27 GWh in settlements by consumption not measured by a meter that was tampered with. We have also ensured the security of detected installations that have been tampered with, and we have changed all meters that have broken down or been tampered with and which could put users and the installations themselves at risk.
Remote control systems
Following the installation of the new telecontrol and remote control system, we have begun to migrate the signals from the regulation and metering stations (RMS), distributed on the Madrileña gas network, to our SCADA system. During this initial phase, all signals associated with network areas totally independent of those of Gas Natural Fenosa (GNF) have already been migrated. At the close of our financial year we took telecontrol of five installations (four RMS and a network access point), reception via the ICCP of signals from the Enagas delivery points and 80% of those from GNF. Similarly, in coordination with all the agents involved, we are making the necessary adjustments in order to take control of 165 remote installations provided in the Sectorisation Project which provides for the technical separation of the Madrileña Red de Gas distribution networks from those of GNF, and their connection to the primary transport networks. The provision for migration of the rest of the signals associated with our RMS and which now operate GNF through a service contract, is the completion of the sectorisation works on the gas network, which is scheduled for next year.
From the new Control Centre we can monitor the operations of the whole network and exploit the data received using the SCADA system. In the operating positions in the aforementioned room, data is received 24 hours a day relating to pressures, flow rates, consumption from all the monitoring points of the network. Using the standard ICC/Tase 2 protocol, this system is able to receive, from GNF, the flow rate and energy values from the Distributor-Distributor Connection Points (DDCPs), and the flow rate and energy values, from Enagás, of the connection points between Transport-Distributor (TDCPs). Any anomaly or incident that could occur within the operating parameters defined is received and processed by the MRG operators 24 hours per day.
Similarly, we have a crisis centre within the Control Centre where we can view the data sent in real time by videowall, television channels and/or data shared from any mobile device.
Telecommunications
MRG has begun a cost review within the company’s IT and telecommunications infrastructure. Along these lines, this year we have made changes to the corporate communications management contracts. Madrileña has increased the installed communications services base with the SCADA system, which can obtain information from more than 160 measuring devices – Remote Terminal Unit and Datalogger -, distributed throughout the whole of the Madrid Community territory.
This work has resulted in the reorganisation and improvement of the corporate information systems communications map – servers and equipment in the field – as well as the telecontrol and remote control system. This has enabled us to reduce our costs by approximately 20%. This reduction has been exceeded considerably in the field of mobile communications.
Readings and measurements
Madrileña Red de Gas has taken one step further towards the efficient management of the network, the aim of which is to have the most accurate possible consumption data on our customers. This policy has enabled us to align the tariffs invoiced for the actual consumption of our customers. At the same time, this has allowed the supplier to have the best information for invoicing the final customer.
One part of the company’s activity has been focused on optimising the execution of management activities of the gas network and those associated with the needs of the customers, thereby streamlining the human resources and materials used.
The activities referred to in the previous paragraph are a basis for preventing technical losses on the network, although non-technical losses are not mitigated.
In order to combat the latter, we have worked on the definition and development of data analysis tools which have allowed us to contrast customer consumption data from different perspectives: consumption comparisons of different years, compared with maximum, compared with the average consumption of the building, etc. Not only has the transactional data held by MRG been included, but also the historical data on our previous customers at the beginning of our operations, in addition to the relevant facts that could alter the data sets: additions, deletions and removals, etc.
Throughout this process, different actions have been taken:
- Greater collaboration with the meter reading companies on the monitoring of readings and their success at actual meter readings. More meter control measures have been incorporated via geolocation of online operators, as well as the reading rates available on the reading web application. For twelve months, prior identification was made for sharing of the work to the reader of customers without an actual reading, and improvements have been made to the reader terminals. Specifically, these types of customers have been visually identified at the actual time of the reading.
decrease in no. of customers without actual volume of calls attended to (thousands) reading, 2015 - The customer’s option to report the reading by e-mail with a photo attached of the reader, or using the customer services platform, where the IVR (Interactive Voice Response, interactive voice answering facility) has been installed. This system allows the customer to insert their DNI or ID number using their telephone keypad and may make their meter reading easier without the need to interact with a platform agent, unless an incident occurs during the registration process. This reading is analysed by the computer system and is considered acceptable whenever it goes through the filters established during the reading process. With this initiative, we have managed to provide timely user management and also ease call volumes, freeing up more call centre agents to provide direct assistance. As a result, we have been able to attend to a higher number of calls relating to other processes pertaining to natural gas distribution activity.
Number of requests transmitted per channel
Volume of calls attended to - A policy for raising user awareness, which has influenced the requirement to allow personnel authorised by the distribution company to enter premises or houses to take meter readings.
- A change to meter reading schedules in order to adapt them to customer lifestyles.
Number of readings taken by time slots
These actions mean that, during the last twelve months, the number of actual readings has increased by 6%, and a 14% reduction in the number of customers without an actual reading. There has also been a 2% increase in the total number of readings taken by the readers. This has all occurred without making any difference to the annual budget for readings.
Billing
For Madrileña Red de Gas, analysis of the climatology is key, given that it is a crucial factor in consumption. Identifying the causes of the fluctuations in consumption when compared with the sector, taking into account the singular typology of MRG customers, is a basic requirement for controlling billed consumption and its short and medium term outlook.
This exhaustive analysis has provided appropriate evolution of adjustments to billed consumption, in a downward trend. An overall improvement has been seen in the distribution of gas consumption during the different months of the year. There is also better understanding of the percentage of consumption billed due to actual meter readings.
Comparisons made between conventional demand in the sector and MRG’s own history allow us to forecast consumption and its influence on the remunerations assigned.
Customer requests
Madrileña Red de Gas has made improvements to the SAP software system for registration of requests. Now we can associate the request to the creation of the work order required for providing the optimal solution. In this way, it is possible to close the request automatically, provided that the work order is finalised with the correct result, which ensures that every request requiring implementation in the field is closed whenever said execution is complete.
Regular inspection
One of the obligations of a natural gas distributor is to ensure the safety of the customers’ installations through regular inspections of each supply point every five years.
Despite the fact that the regular inspections (RIs) carried out during this financial year are associated with the year in which our regular inspection cycle has been changed from every four years to every five, MRG has successfully managed to carry out 136,509 regular inspections, which has led to the 92% success rate in the fiscal year.
The actions taken to achieve this result were the following:
- Installations with no regular inspection: 15,000 RIs have been carried out, leading to an overall success rate of 53%. The safety of the users themselves has also been guaranteed, as this has enabled us to detect anomalies in their gas installations: 5% with primary anomalies and 10% with secondary anomalies.
- RIs carried out by other areas of the company: contractors in other areas have been trained to carry out regular inspections. This has led to increased agility when providing this service. In addition, we have been able to carry out the regular inspection concurrently with other operations, such as fraud inspections or reopening after a supply cut due to non-payment, always leaving the supply point secure.
Emergencies
This year we have seen an increase in the number of emergency calls of 30.3% compared to the previous year. Even so, Madrileña Red de Gas has once again managed to set an average response time of just 28 minutes for priority 1 calls. This was possible thanks to management improvements, new applications and the geolocation system, which has enabled us to assign each call to the teams closest to the incident location, both for user’s houses and in our natural gas distribution system.
Network maintenance
We have carried out 100% of our maintenance plan on preventive and corrective activity, provided in the regulations and in accordance with MRG’s quality standards, reducing the expenses budget associated to such activities by 6.75%.
Household operations
During the current year, MRG has improved its success rates on shut-off, closure and reopening services, which has enabled us to allocate more, improved resources to other internal units of the company such as the fraud unit or the department of regular inspections.
- Closures requested by traders: 61%
- Closures requested by the customer: 94%
- Shut-offs: 82%
- Reopenings: 92%
Document management
As part of the gas distribution network’s management tasks, Madrileña takes more than 4,500,000 readings from its customers, which are used to process the billing data sent to the traders. As well as the data sent via GPRS to the corporate transactional system, these operations generate a large number of photographs – more than 500,000 per year on average – which serve to validate the data collection and/or provide evidence of its execution.
On the other hand, different operations are carried out in the field which also generate a large volume of documentation:
- Commissioning of gas: every year we carry out more than 10,000 operations. With the incorporation of the mobility system into the commissioning service, we have reduced the deadlines by 1.5 days, which means a 35% improvement in installation start-up times.
- Household operations: we have carried out an average of 50,000 household operations (closures, shut-offs, reopenings, meter checks, etc.)
- Regular inspections: our legislation requires natural gas distributors to carry out regular inspections every five years of the individual receptor instalation (IRI) and the common receiving facilities (CRF) of our customers. Therefore, we carry out an average of 175,000 regular inspections annually to customers.
Associated with these operations, a certificate is issued with the details of the operation signatures of the customer and field technician. Furthermore, it is possible to annex photographs which complement data collected on the mobility application of field operations.
Madrileña Red de Gas generates a large amount of information and documentation every day. This is stored in a document management system which allows access according to different criteria (customer, Universal Supply Point Code CUPS, date of execution etc.) and in the shortest possible time.
The development of this application has made substantial improvements with respect to the time spent in the activity of our managers. It has also allowed operators from the call centre to access information and documentation more rapidly, providing a better service to MRG’s customers.