State Grid Beijing Electric Power Company pledged on Wednesday to upgrade its services by streamlining its procedures and reducing the cost of gaining access to electricity supply in Beijing.

The action was released via a white paper titled Getting Electricity in Beijing, created by the company in accordance with the 19th National People's Congress' call for the upgrade of the country's electricity industry and infrastructure.

The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of State Grid Corp of China, is responsible for planning, construction, operations management, electricity sales and power supply services in Beijing. The white paper proposes policies, procedures and reform initiatives related to gaining access to electricity supply in China's capital, aiming to optimize the city's business environment.

According to Qiu Mingquan, representative of Beijing Electric Power, cultivating a world-class business environment is a key priority for national and municipal leadership, with energy playing a strategic role in this push.

Using advanced economies around the world as a benchmark, Beijing Electric Power has taken concrete measures to improve and promote the quality of power supply services, power reliability and ease of power generation, in order to better support the local business environment.

The year 2018 marks 40 years of reform and opening-up in China and as the country's capital, Beijing is making great strides in helping to cultivate a top-tier environment for business, including in the realm of electricity services, according to Guo Lianqi, director of the Electric and Coal Division of City Management Committee of Beijing.

Since 2017, Beijing Electric Power has put forward a series of reform measures to reduce the amount and type of information required during application processes, as well as the number of follow up procedures the company must manage.

As a result, customers can now apply for electricity supply via a variety of convenient channels, such as at a service center, on a new mobile app and website, and more. This key process has been streamlined for all user types.

Beijing Electric Power has also reduced the cost of electricity for small and microenterprises. In some cases, the company fully funds specific electricity installation processes.

For low-voltage power projects of 160 kilowatts or less, the cost of new construction work on the distribution grid, including meters, meter boxes and the distribution network, are now financed by the power company, with no cost burden for the user.

To enhance its customer service, Beijing Electric Power has introduced its Palm Power app with an integrated online repair management system. By the end of 2017, the company had already managed 406,000 repair cases arising from digital requests.

After a customer applies for services via the app, it takes on average only three minutes for the work order to be dispatched to repair personnel via their mobile devices. Customers can then view real-time information about the designated repair staff member, including his or her movements to the repair site, enhancing transparency and giving customers peace of mind. With these upgrades, arrival and repair completion times have been reduced by 12 and 13 minutes, respectively.

In 2018, Beijing Electric Power is continuing to intensify its reform and innovation efforts to further improve the level of electricity support it offers companies.

To tackle the common industry hurdles facing many small and microenterprises, the company launched a special service guarantee for low-voltage customers.

If users have previously submitted documents, they remain valid when requesting electricity services for a project and users will not be required to resubmit the same materials for approval.

The company has increased low-voltage power supply capacity from 100 kW to 160 kW, has invested in low-voltage facilities and has reduced costs for microenterprises.