Open Source in Electric Utilities

Kerala Electricity Board saves mn by using Open Source

Kerala has always been in the forefront with regard to free and open source solutions. In Kerala starting from school students to Government offices, everyone uses Linux. 

The revolution started way back in 2008 with the successful in-house development and implementation of ORUMA(Open Resourced Utility Management Application). ORUMA gave freedom to Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) from the clutches of Microsoft

KSEB serves 11 million customers across the state and has 697 sections for billing. ORUMA works within a client-server architecture and works in real-time providing solutions for new connections, billing, cash collection and accounting of customers. PostgreSQL is used as a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), Debian Linux as the server OS, Ubuntu Linux as the client OS, and PHP as the server-side scripting language for the Web-based front-end. In addition to ORUMA, KSEB has accounting software Saras, a Human Resource Management System (PF and Payroll module); HT and EHT billing software for new connections, billing, collection and accounting; software providing Web-enabled services like e-payment, and the Supply Chain Management System, which handles planning, procurement and store management. Even the KSEB website runs on Joomla, again an open source solution. They are planning to implement GIS also on open source as most of their requirements are simple do not justify costly COTS deployment.

Advantages of FOSS adoption:

1. Economic and technical superiority
2. Saved about Rs 7-8 crore(1.6 mn USD) by implementing open source tools for deployment of various applications
3. No license renewals and version updation, so no expenses in that regard
4. The government has become aware about this recurring expenditure, and supports open source solutions to the maximum extent possible to keep IT expenses down to the minimum.
5. No vendor dependability
6. Free to modify code without fear of legal complications
7. In terms of scalability, PostgreSQL stands at par with industry-known proprietary databases like SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL