Project: Electricity Bill Pal – AI-Powered Automated Bill Distribution #46
Description
Project Name
Electricity Bill Pal
Description
What is Electricity Bill Pal?
Electricity Bill Pal is an automation solution designed to simplify and streamline the electricity bill distribution process in multi-apartment complexes. It leverages Power Platform to digitize bill handling, reducing manual errors and improving efficiency.
What Problem Does It Solve?
Currently, security guards manually sort and deliver electricity bills to residents, leading to:
- Mismatched or lost bills, causing payment delays.
- Missed due dates, resulting in disconnections.
- Heavy manual workload, reducing security personnel’s efficiency.
How Does It Work?
- Bill Capture: The security guard takes a photo of each bill using a Canvas App.
- Automated Data Extraction: Power Automate and Document Processing AI Model extract key details (USC No., bill amount, due date, etc.).
- Digital Bill Delivery: Residents receive an email notification with their bill details and a soft copy attached.
Key Benefits
- Eliminates manual sorting errors
- Ensures timely bill delivery & prevents missed payments
- Reduces security guard’s workload, allowing focus on core duties
Future Enhancements
- Bulk upload for bill scanning – process multiple bills at once.
- Multi-apartment scalability – expand to other residential complexes.
- Payment integration – residents can pay their bills directly via the platform.
This solution enhances efficiency, reduces disputes, and modernizes bill distribution with automation.
Technology & Languages
- Copilot Studio
- Power Apps
- Power Automate
- Power Pages
- AI Builder
- Microsoft Fabric/Power BI
- Microsoft 365
- Integrations with external systems
- Azure (e.g. Azure AI Foundry or Azure Functions)
- Microsoft 365 Agents SDK
- Power Fx
- C#
- TypeScript
- Python
Scalability of your solution
1. Multi-Apartment Support
The solution can be easily adapted to multiple apartment complexes by allowing each housing society to onboard their residents and security team. This can be achieved through:
- Tenant-configurable setup – Each apartment complex can register and configure its own system.
- Role-based access control – Admins, security personnel, and residents get specific permissions.
2. Bulk Processing for Efficiency
To handle a larger number of bills efficiently, the solution can be enhanced with:
- Bulk Upload Feature – Security guards can scan multiple bills at once instead of taking individual photos.
- Automated Data Extraction in Batches – Power Automate can process multiple bills simultaneously to reduce processing time.
- AI-driven Error Handling – Smart validation to detect duplicate or incorrect bill entries.
3. Cross-Platform Bill Delivery
The solution can scale by integrating multi-channel bill delivery, ensuring every resident gets their bill through their preferred medium:
- WhatsApp or SMS notifications for residents who don’t check emails frequently.
4. Payment Integration for End-to-End Processing
- Adding a "Pay Now" button in the email to direct users to the electricity board’s payment portal.
- Future integration with UPI, bank payments, or payment gateways for seamless bill payments.
- Power Automate can track paid/unpaid status and trigger reminders for pending payments.
5. AI-Powered Predictive Analytics
With Power BI dashboards, the system can analyse data over time and:
- Predict late payments based on user behaviour.
- Provide monthly usage insights to help residents track their electricity consumption.
- Identify patterns in bill delivery errors and optimize the process.
By implementing these enhancements, Electricity Bill Pal can scale to serve thousands of residents across multiple apartments, improving efficiency, reducing disputes, and simplifying bill management.
Security of your solution
1. Data Protection & Privacy
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):
- Security guards can only capture bill images and trigger automation.
- Residents can only access their own bills.
- Admins manage overall system settings and user access.
Data Encryption:
- All resident information and extracted bill data are stored securely in Dataverse with encryption at rest and in transit.
- Emails with bill details are sent securely using Microsoft 365 services, preventing unauthorized interception.
Access Restrictions:
- Only authenticated users (residents, security guards, admins) can access relevant data.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) can be enforced for resident and admin logins.
AI-power of your solution
1. AI-Based Document Processing
The solution leverages Microsoft AI Document Processing (AI Builder in Power Automate) to automatically extract key details from electricity bills, including:
- USC No. (Unique Service Connection Number)
- Bill Amount
- Due Date & Disconnection Date
- Resident Name
- and other information from the bill
This removes manual data entry errors and speeds up bill processing.
Project Repository URL
https://github.com/Sriram6000/Electricity-Bill-Pal
Project Setup Instructions URL
https://github.com/Sriram6000/Electricity-Bill-Pal/blob/main/Installation%20Steps
Project video
Team Members
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