Entergy Customer Profile

Meter Reading Services developed for Entergy Metro Louisiana

Challenge: In 1990, Entergy Louisiana (previously known as Louisiana Power and Light and New Orleans Public Service) sought a way to reduce their meter reading costs while still maintaining management control over service quality.

Process: Entergy Louisiana contracted with Viewtech in May 1990 to provide four meter readers and one supervisor to read electric and gas meters for residential and commercial meters in the New Orleans metropolitan district. In the fall of 1990, Entergy requested 10 more temporary Viewtech staff and seven more to take the place of utility employees who had been transferred, retired or had been promoted.

In June, 1992, Viewtech was asked to take responsibility for implementing a remote meter reading program using Schlumberger probe devices. Viewtech staff installed almost 600 of the remote devices throughout residential and commercial locations in New Orleans. The remote meters were integrated into regular meter routes in February, 1992.

Today, over 40 Viewtech employees read up to 535,000 meters monthly. Meter readers report daily to a Viewtech office situated in the utilities' building. Viewtech schedules and assigns the daily routes and the project manager transfers data from the utility-owned Datamatic meter reading devices as needed.

Viewtech trains the new employees and negotiates access to hard-to-read meters along Viewtech's routes. Viewtech performs field testing of new routes and assumes liability for dog bites and other worker's compensation claims by Viewtech's readers. Signs of meter tampering as well as new or changed account information are promptly reported by Viewtech using the same forms and procedures as the utility employees.

Entergy now contracts 100% of their meter reading, of which Viewtech is responsible for 80% of the reads in the New Orleans metropolitan area. Utility management routinely compares statistics on skips, misreads and other service quality indicators among the Viewtech and the other contract vendor. Errors (and consequently rebills) have dropped dramatically. The New Orleans Metro error rate for electric meters is now averaging less than 1.5 per 1,000 reads with an aggressive program for continuous improvement. This results in highly accurate customer billings, which is a winning situation for everyone.

Viewtech participates in the Entergy Awards program to recognize quarterly the top readers in each group. In addition, Viewtech regularly hosts team-building sports activities such as bowling and softball. Parties and picnics are sponsored by Viewtech in conjunction with the utility so that both groups and their families get better acquainted in a relaxed atmosphere.

Results: Through a gradual, but steady transition of responsibilities from the utility to Viewtech, Entergy is significantly reducing its labor and management expenses. The increasing number of meter routes transferred to Viewtech through natural employee attrition is a strong indication of the utilities' confidence in the service quality and management control that Viewtech maintains.