About Settlement Transactions

Settlement Calculation Group Determination

The first step in settlement calculation is to determine the settlement calculation group holding the rules set used in calculating or validating the calculations. There are two ways of configuring the settlement calculation group to use in the processing. It may be specified on the settlement subscription during its creation with an effective and expiration date. If there are no settlement calculation groups in effect for the settlement transaction, the Fallback Settlement Calculation Group specified in the settlement subscription type will be used.

Calculation Period

Settlement transaction requests must specify the date range for the settlement transaction. This date range is referred to as the calculation period for the settlement transaction.

Date Breaks

Date breaks are used to break up a settlement period into sub-periods based on the dates on which changes took place for market participants. One approach to this situation would be for the system to crate settlement transactions (where each has the desired date range). Another approach is for the system to create single settlement transaction with date breaks that define the date ranges before and after the change.

If a settlement transaction has date break(s), the settlement calculation engine segregates the usage into multiple calculation periods based on the date breaks. If there are no date breaks in the settlement transaction, a single calculation period is created for the entire calculation period.

Service Quantities

Every settlement period created for a settlement transaction contains one or more service quantities. Service quantities are calculated by the settlement calculation group's rules specified for the settlement subscription from which the settlement transaction is created. For example, a settlement transaction might have quantities calculated by a single rule that applies a TOU map to aggregated kWh .

Each service quantity lists details about that quantity, including a UOM (or TOU or SQI as appropriate) and a quantity. In addition, each service quantity also references the source (measuring component) of the quantities (for audit purposes).

Quality Assessment

The Get Interval Data, Get Scalar Details, and Get Time of Use Mapped Usage calculation rules include a "Perform Measurement Quality Assessment" option that indicates (yes or no) if the measurement conditions of the measurements used when calculating usage should be evaluated and included in the resulting settlement transaction and outbound message. When enabled (set to "Yes"), the calculation rule algorithm evaluates the condition codes of the measurements used in the calculation to determine if they fall within a "Regular" range of conditions (this range is defined by the "Bottom Regular Condition Range" and "Top Regular Condition Range" algorithm parameters). The result of this assessment is displayed in the "Data Quality Assessment" column in the Calcuatio0n Periods section which indicates if the service quantity is based on "regular" or "non- regular" data. (If the "Perform Measurement Quality Assessment" option is disabled, the "Data Quality Assessment" column displays "No Assessment Done). In addition, the "Source Measurement Quality List" column contains XML that contains a list of measurements aggregated by condition/quality.

Validations

As settlement transactions are created and move through their various states, several validations are performed to ensure proper processing. These include:

• Validating the business object used to create the settlement transaction
• Validating the start and end dates for the settlement transaction
• Validating the settlement transaction’s service quantities
• Validating the existing settlement transactions for the same calculation period
• Validating whether or not the settlement transaction can be deleted