Western Power buys Oracle billing software

The utility has purchased the Utilities Customer Care and Billing platform and will work with Logica on the implementation.

The disaggregation in Western Australia has created a separate retailer and network operator for electricity provision.

As the network operator, Western Power is required to produce auditable consumer billing and retailer reconciliation, detailing how much power - and associated cost - each retailer's customers have used.

Western Power hopes to advance its customer service capabilities to prepare for market deregulation through the maintenance of up-to-date information on all its customers' supply points, it said.

"We chose Oracle based on the strength of its brand and its ability to meet tight implementation timeframes," said Gino Giudice, branch manager, customer assistance at Western Power.

"The system's configurability and contemporary technology platform, along with Oracle's experience in the network billing and customer management space were the main factors in our decision."