Industry overview
What is shaping electric power
Power utilities serve millions of households and businesses, and are judged on reliability, billing accuracy and how well they communicate during outages. Smart meters are changing the relationship.
- Smart meters are changing billing and payment behaviour
- Outage communication strongly affects satisfaction
- Digital payments are replacing counter payments
Client background
A power generation company, working in Chhattisgarh. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A power generation company
- Sector
- Electric power
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Government research, Quantitative research, Reporting & insights
Client challenge
The company funded health, education and livelihood programmes around its plant and wanted to know which made a real difference to families. Community expectations were rising, and the company wanted to direct its budget where it had the greatest impact.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: evaluating community programmes around a thermal power plant.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of households.
- Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 8 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 1,500 households.
- households1,500
Audiences we typically reach in electric power
Residential consumersCommercial and industrial consumersSmart-meter usersField and call-centre staffRegulators
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Chhattisgarh. Market: India. 20 villages covered.
- India
Research methodology
A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.
- 1Brief
- 2Household survey
- 3Programme review
- 4Insight
We surveyed households in programme and comparison villages about health service use, schooling and incomes, and reviewed programme records. Group discussions with women and young people explored priorities for future programmes and how existing ones could improve. Interviews were conducted in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi by local field teams, with GPS-tagged interviews and back-checks.
Government researchQuantitative researchReporting & insights
Sampling strategy
- households
- 1,500
- Respondents were selected across Chhattisgarh using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
Data collection
- Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
Data quality & validation
- Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
- Time and location checks on field interviews
- Supervisor accompaniment in the field
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
Key findings
- Mobile health clinics and school support were valued and well used, while livelihood training had little effect.
Comparison villages made impact claims credible.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: comparison villages made impact claims credible.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: mobile health clinics and school support were valued and well used, while livelihood training had little effect.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The company redirected livelihood funding into market-linked skills programmes.
- The company also set up a community advisory group to guide future CSR decisions.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Evaluation findings with programme recommendations
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: what drives smart-meter acceptance?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.