OVERVIEW

Tasmanian energy provider Aurora Energy wanted to transition from end of life PAYG meters to next generation advanced meters that could leverage mobile technology and transform how their customers accessed, analysed and paid for their energy use.

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Background

We partnered with Aurora Energy in Tasmania to develop an innovative mobile customer solution for PAYG customers, including Top up Balance 24/7, Push reminders, Daily energy usage & energy savings tips.

Many Aurora Energy customers did not feel they could control their energy costs, mostly due to a lack of transparency.  Customers wanted features that provided visibility of their consumption and facilitated more frequent payments to avoid ‘bill shock’.

Research also showed that energy consumers’ expectations are changing – they’re more mobile and digital-savvy and seek greater control, flexibility and on-demand services. Essentially, customers want a different level of engagement with their energy retailer.

Our Approach

Leveraging agile methodology and human centred design, we created a native mobile application platform - Aurora PAYG+

Delivering a scalable, cloud hosted platform that delivers for both the client and their customers. The platform was designed to meet the immediate requirements of the PAYG replacement, but with the aim of expanding into other products.  

To cater for customers’ different online preferences, the core mobile application is built using REACT Native which supports responsive browsers and native smartphone. The application leverages Azure Cloud services to facilitate easy scale, growth and future product roadmap enhancements.

The associated framework is scalable, cloud based, and integrates with the enterprise customer billing platform.

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The Outcome

The APAYG+ solution was the first digital product designed and delivered by Aurora energy.  It was designed to be customer centric and focus on the challenges within the customer base which includes low levels of general and digital literacy.

The solution allows customers to:

• Easy access to their daily account balance and an estimate of the number of days their account will remain in credit, derived from their recent electricity consumption.  
• Receive timely account balance alerts via in-app, SMS and email channels provide convenient prompts to maintain control,
• Secure in-app payments give customers a speedy and convenient way to top up their balance and receive immediate confirmation of their new balance.
• Customers can view a graphical summary of their daily usage behaviour by quantity, cost and the time period when electricity was used.

The current functionality supports Aurora PAYG+ customers, although the platform has been designed to support 50,000+ future users for additional Aurora products and features.  The solution has been positively received and has encouraged some end users to expand their use of other government online services.

Aurora Energy and RXP were recipients of a state AiiA iAward in 2019 for the project.

RXP continue to work with Aurora to expand the platform and other products being scoped include residential and a small to medium business solution.

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