Analyzing Market Communication Processes in General

SAP Market Communication for Utilities is capable of supporting a variety of general functions. This includes regulating the exchange of messages among the business system, market communication system and market partners. It also Encompasses the management of the acknowledgment messages, known as CONTRL and APERAK. Moreover, it permits the amalgamation and breakdown of messages and aids in the management of partners. Additionally, it can execute the reversal of processes.

The separation of business system and market communication system divides the overall process as follows:

• The processing part runs in SAP S/4HANA Utilities.
• The communication part runs in the MaCo Cloud.

The MaCo cloud doesn't possess its own master data like business partner or point-of-delivery. It's imperative for the MaCo cloud to acquire such data from the business system in order to send, or receive them from, market partners. The medium of communication between MaCo cloud and the business system is through transfer documents, commonly referred to as TDOCs.

The MaCo cloud carries out all processes that should remain unaffected by the customer. Contrarily, the business system concentrates on the business data and processes. It operates without any influence from market communication data and processes.

The figure above shows the example of a MaCo cloud receiving a registration request from the business system of the new supplier (SUPN) and handling the communication with the external market partner, the distributor (DSO).

The following figures explain the message exchange concept between business process and market communication process in detail.

The figure shows the message exchange concept between business system, market communication system and external market partners.

Due to the division of processes into business and market communication parts, exchanging data using business messages is necessary. The diagram's upper segment represents the transfer of business messages between the business system and the market communication system. Conversely, the lower segment illustrates the transfer of market messages between the market communication system and the market partner.

The component known as the Application Process Engine (APE) operates within both the business system and the market communication system. APE documents the progress of each business and market message transfer in a transfer document, often referred to as TDOC. Additionally, APE notes down the development of each process execution in what's called a process document, or PDOC.

The Market Message Transfer (MMT) component is operational solely within the market communication system. Its primary responsibility is to manage the exchange of market messages with the external market partner (EMP). This also involves the packing and unpacking process to or from emails or AS4.

The figure shows the business message transfer between the business system and the market communication system.

The upper part shows the business message transfer in the direction from the business system to the market communication system.

1. A business process or a job triggers the transfer of a business message. APE creates a TDOC and adds it to the processing queue.
2. APE picks up the TDOC from the queue and processes it. The business message leaves the business system towards MMT in the cloud.
3. MMT receives the business message and hands it over to APE in the cloud. APE creates a TDOC and adds it to the processing queue.
4. APE picks up the TDOC and processes it. The business message receipt is completed and the market process can start or continue.

The lower part shows the business message transfer in the other direction from the market communication system to the business system.

1. A market process or a job triggers the transfer of a business message. APE creates a TDOC and adds it to the processing queue.
2. APE picks up the TDOC from the queue and processes it. The business message leaves APE in the cloud towards MMT in the cloud.
3. MMT sends the message to the business system. APE picks up the message and creates a TDOC and adds it to the processing queue.
4. APE picks up the TDOC and processes it. The business message receipt is completed and the business process can start or continue.

The figure shows the market message transfer between the market communication system and the external market partner (EMP).

The upper part shows the market message transfer in the direction from the market communication system to the external market partner.

1. A market process triggers the transfer of a market message. APE creates a TDOC and adds it to the processing queue.
2. APE picks up the TDOC from the queue and processes it. The market message leaves the MaCo Cloud towards MMT.
3. MMT picks up the market message, creates an EDIFACT file, packs it into e-mail or AS4 format and sends the market message to the EMP.
4. The EMP receives the market message and responds with a positive acknowledgment (CONTRL) message.

The lower part shows the market message transfer in the other direction from the external market partner to the market communication system.

1. The EMP sends a market message, an EDIFACT file in e-mail or AS4 format, to your own market partner's address.
2. MMT receives the market message, unpacks and checks it, and sends a positive acknowledgment (CONTRL) back to the EMP. MMT hands the message from the market partner and the acknowledgment (CONTRL) back to the EMP over to APE.
3. APE creates a TDOC for the market message receipt and adds it to the processing queue.
4. APE picks up the TDOC and processes it. The market message receipt is completed and the market process can start or continue.

Before sending out market messages, the MaCo cloud performs an internal, unified check on utility business data (UBD) obtained from TDOCs. In cases where this check fails, the process initiates a clarification case within the Business Process Exception Management (BPEM). If the problem is solvable, the market message gets resent post-correction. However, if the problem remains unsolvable, the process will be terminated both in the business system and in the MaCo cloud.

Once the UBDclears the internal checks within the MaCo cloud, the data is passed on to the Market Message Transfer (MMT) component. MMT then generates EDIFACT market messages utilizing the UBD content. It carries out internal CONTRL and APERAK checks, which imitate the checks performed by market partners. If these internal checks are successful, the messages are then dispatched. However, it's possible that negative CONTRL or APERAK responses may still be received from the market partners afterwards.

The MaCo cloud carries out a unified examination on the incoming market messages from external market partners. Following these checks, the MaCo cloud instantly dispatches either positive or negative CONTRL or APERAK messages.

The TDOC for the original inbound message gets the status 

• Positive CONTRL Sent  
• Negative CONTRL Sent  
• APERAK Sent

The MaCo cloud can combine multiple outbound messages into one single aggregated message to reduce the number of messages exchanged.

In the Single-Upload approach, which is shown in the lower part of the figure, numerous individual PDOCs are sent from the business system to the MaCo cloud and aggregated there into one single PDOC at the very end. The aggregation criteria are sender, receiver and message type.

The aggregated PDOC triggers one single TDOC for sending the aggregated message to the market partner.

In the Mass-Upload approach for MSCONS, the meter readings and load shapes are already collected in the business system and mass-uploaded to the MaCo cloud. There, dedicated processes make sure that the data is checked and that invalid single entities are corrected or skipped. Another follow-up process analyzes the entities and creates new collections based on fitting data like point-of-delivery or market partner.

The external market partners usually send combined (aggregated) market messages to reduce the number of messages exchanged.

The messages are either aggregated on message header (UNH) level or below the UNH level.

The MaCo cloud de-aggregates all incoming aggregated messages using two special TDOCs prior to the further processing.

• The parent TDOC contains the EDIFACT payload only.
• The child TDOC contains several business objects, one per transaction of the original message.

The aggregated child TDOC creates single TDOCs, one per business object or transaction.

The single TDOCs trigger single PDOCs.

The MaCo cloud manages own market partners and triggers the sending of their communication data to external partners using dedicated apps.

The MaCo cloud manages communication market partners and displays the communication data received from them using dedicated apps.

The following exchange directions are allowed (simplified):

• The meter operator exchanges data with other meter operators, distributors and suppliers.
• The distributor exchanges data with meter operators, suppliers and settlement coordinators.
• The supplier exchanges data with meter operators, distributors, other suppliers and settlement coordinators.
• The settlement coordinator exchanges data with distributors and suppliers.

The reversal process has been defined in accordance with the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) and the EDI@Energy application manual.

Outgoing process reversals are forwarded by the MaCo cloud to the market partner and internally executed upon their confirmation.

Incoming reversal requests from the market partner are received in the MaCo cloud which searches for the process to be reversed, reverses the process document and handles the communication with the market partners.