Meralco taps Cloudera to boost data management 

Meralco (the Manila Electric Company), the largest power distributor in the Philippines, is working with Cloudera to harness the full potential of its data in order to achieve greater operational efficiencies and raise customer satisfaction.

To accommodate growing data requirements as well as the need for more efficient data management, Meralco required a robust data platform that could handle the volume and speed at which data was collected and generated across its online channels, electricity supply chain management systems, and more. 

Driven by its customer-centricity and digital transformation program, the company had to implement a solution that could store and integrate data from across the organisation while eliminating data silos, allowing them to use various data to improve customer service.

Cloudera worked with Meralco to develop a custom solution, a flagship analytics platform that processes Meralco’s data and runs various machine learning (ML) models. 

Through the Meralco Data Platform (MDP), Meralco has improved the turnaround time for the provision of electricity services, while raising customer satisfaction levels through analysis of customer concerns and inquiries. 

MDP has allowed Meralco to implement predictive analytics for improved identification of secondary lines for rehabilitation and overloaded distribution transformers. 

These predictive models helped line offices conduct targeted field verification and facility correction, which resulted in prevention of probable outages to almost 200,000 customers in 2021.

With Cloudera’s support, Meralco was able to integrate the data silos within the organisation, including all elements of its operations. 

This will provide Meralco with full visibility of relevant data that they can leverage to know more about the needs and behavior of their customers, which will in turn uncover more opportunities to further improve customer experience at every touchpoint, improve asset and grid management, and increase operational efficiency.

Meralco has also leveraged MDP to launch M-Wing, a single-source management dashboard, accessible on-line via mobile devices, for reporting of key performance indicators. The business performance reports are presented internally to Meralco and the Board, as well as externally to investors and the media.

“By unlocking the value of information to insights and harnessing the connected intelligence across Meralco, we bring to light where and how we can drive exceptional service to our customers, streamline our internal operations and create new opportunities for innovation — fully recognising the power of data as an enabler to business growth,” said Rocky D. Bacani, Meralco FVP and head of information, communication, technology and transformation.