Explaining Real-Time Pricing Billing

Having been a monopoly in a regulated utilities market, the utilities economy is fast becoming a competition-focused energy and service economy. This is an international development, but the degree of liberalization may vary considerably between regions and regions may use different deregulation rules or guidelines.

Breaking up the value creation chain has required the IT structure of a company to be modified accordingly, which in turn leads to information systems being separated. The new business areas or companies (such as sales, billing, energy data management, grid operation) only store data in their information systems, which they require for their respective business area.

Data exchange can only function efficiently if all communication partners define a collective communication standard, in other words, if they all speak the same electronic language. This communication standard can be defined at state or regulatory level, by collective associations within the industry, or can be agreed using bilateral agreements between individual communication partners.

Energy Data Management is a solution which provides functions for measuring load shapes, energy settlement, schedule management and billing of interval energy consumption.

Numerous settlement data flows required can be represented using SAP IS-Utilities. Consumption data that is determined and managed in component SAP IS-U-EDM, is transferred during settlement. With the help of the processes provided by component SAP IS-U-IDE, this data can be communicated to other market participants.

The billing of interval-related data (profiles) is called real-time pricing billing (RTP billing). RTP billing allows you to define rates and prices freely across intervals and therefore enables you to structure contracts that are required in a deregulated energy market more freely.

The RTP interface is needed to support the following:

• Billing of weekend/weekday periods
• Billing of on/off-peak periods
• Billing of seasons such as summer, winter, spring, fall
• Calculations based on profile data, such as measured load shapes
• Complex billing such as TOU, spot pricing, and RTP (covered in detail in the following slides)

These functions necessitate the use of flexible formula calculations that support multiple billing requirements.

The RTP interface enhances IS-U Billing to encompass the scope of complex billing.

Complex billing can be divided into three function groups. These are:

• Time-of-use pricing (TOU Pricing)
• Real-time pricing
• Spot billing

You can use RTP billing to calculate time-of-use pricing models and RTP models. You can define prices in advance or adjust prices to the spot price defined by the energy market.

The billing types used in complex billing are described in the detail on the following slides.

Time-of-use energy billing is based on the aggregation of energy quantities over pre-defined periods. A profile, such as a measured load shape, forms the basis for billing.

In TOU, the RTP interface determines the following:

• Consumption groups
• Peak values, such as maximum demand (if required)

You can use hierarchies to define the consumption periods. A time hierarchy can be created from the following elements:

• Seasons, such as summer/winter.
• Day types, such as working day, public holiday, weekend day.
• Time of the day, such as on/off-peak times.

Real-Time Pricing is the billing of energy based on energy quantities determined over pre-defined periods of time.

Each interval is valuated separately.

Within an interval you can define any number of value limits and the energy quantities that exceed/fall below these limits can be determined.

Spot pricing:

The spot price is the current market price at which energy can be purchased at short notice (from an energy exchange, for example).

RTP billing can be used to determine the energy quantity that can then be priced using the spot price.

• You can also model special agreements that were made with the energy customer.
• In the preceding example, a short term contract is sold to the customer for the time period between 12:00 and 13:00 on October 5.
  • Customer pays the spot price for consumption above the baseline.
  • Customer pays the spot price for consumption below the baseline.
  • Customer's existing rate is a TOU rate.

IS-U-EDM allows you to prepare for RTP billing. An internal interface transfers prepared RTP data to the IS-U billing component. Unlike conventional IS-U billing, RTP billing allows you to bill very small units of time (such as data from 15-minute intervals). These units of time correspond to the time units of the interval data measured.

Profile values are recorded in the Energy Data Repository in the IS-U-EDM component. The point of delivery is used as a collective communication object between an automated meter reading system (AMRS) and IS-U.

The RTP interface links the profile data contained in EDM (IS-U-EDM) with the IS-U Billing (IS-U- BI). In order to do this, the RTP interface is allocated to the rate used for billing an interval meter. This link serves to:

• Bill interval-related data (complex billing)
• Transfer energy values from the Energy Data Management (IS-U-EDM) component to the Billing (IS-U-BI) component.
• Flexibly model and bill commercial and industrial utility customers as well as other large accounts.

The starting point is always a measured load shape, which provides the consumption values with date information and a consumption period (5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minute intervals) in a detailed format. This load shape can now be "cut" vertically or horizontally for various points in time.

• Profile values are stored in EDM.
• The RTP interface only transfers discrete values to Billing.
• The discrete values result from a mathematical formula definition that forms part of the RTP interface.

• The results (values) from the RTP interface are transferred to rate steps in the rate within SAP S/4HAHA Utilities Billing.
• The operands receive the values via the rate facts.

• The RTP interfaces enables you to bill energy using profiles.
• An RTP interface is allocated to the rate header data.
• Special agreements for given customers can be modeled in an individual RTP interface. An individual RTP interface has priority over the general interface.
• An individual RTP interface is allocated to the utility installation.

Display and preparation of profiles. Microsoft Excel has been integrated into IS-U-EDM via an OLE (object linking and embedding) interface. This interface allows you to:

• Display profile values in Microsoft Excel.
• Change profile values in Excel and save the changes in an Excel file.
• Export profile values (including status) from SAP IS-U-EDM to an Excel file and edit them at your workstation.
• Import elementary profile values (including status) from an Excel file into SAP IS-U-EDM.

In the setup of the input parameters in the RTP interface, a profile role or an actual profile number can be assigned.

Formulas define the calculations that take place when an RTP interface is executed. You allocate a formula to an RTP interface. When you choose a formula, you define input parameters to be supplied to the interface as well as the output parameters available.

Formulas are used in the RTP interface to model the interval-related portion of the rate. Formulas are also used to calculate one formula profile from any number of individual profiles.

• You can use consistency checks to check the data import between profile imports, for example to perform a consistency check for overlapping data.
• Several consistency checks can be allocated to consistency check groups.
• This enables you to perform several consistency checks during a profile import and to trigger various follow-up actions if errors occur.
• Action to Take After Errors in Consistency Check. An action determines how to proceed with profile values after an error has occurred when they are imported. The following actions for errors in the consistency check are defined by SAP:
  • Profile values are not saved.
  • Profile values are not saved. Terminate import
  • Profile values are saved in spite of the error.
• In the profile header data, you can then choose from previously defined consistency check groups.

• In the context of energy data management, values must be provided to replace missing or implausible profile values.
• In addition, forecast values for profiles must be created for settlement simulations or schedule creation, for example.
• With help from replacement value procedures and replacement value procedure groups, you can determine how replacement values are created for profiles managed in IS-U-EDM.
• A function module that executes the replacement value creation is allocated to every replacement value procedure. Customers can therefore define their own replacement value procedures very easily.
• SAP provides seven sample replacement value procedures.

• Linear replacement value procedure:

  This procedure shows replacement values in a linear format. This means that the difference between the last known value prior to the missing values and the first known value after the missing values is distributed across the number of missing intervals.

• Maximum value replacement values procedure:

  This procedure replaces missing values with the maximum value from the last known value prior to the missing values and the first known value after the missing values.

• Minimum value replacement values procedure:

  This procedure replaces missing values with the minimum value from the last known value prior to the missing values and the first known value after the missing values.