About Final Measurements
Final measurements are measurements that have been validated, and if necessary, edited & estimated, and is ready for use in downstream processing such as bill determinants calculations.
When an initial measurement is considered "final," that is, it has passed all VEE processing and no additional modifications or changes need to be made, it is transformed into a Final Measurement, or simply a Measurement (the terms measurement, final measurement, and final consumption all reference this same "final" measurement data). Only one final measurement can exist for a given date/time for a given measuring component; one final measurement exists per interval, and likewise one final measurement exists for each scalar reading. In both cases, the final measurement value stored represents the amount consumed between its date/time and the prior final measurement's date/time.
When creating final measurements from initial measurement data:
- Final measurements are created using Post VEE quantities
- Each final measurement's condition is copied from the Post VEE condition
- Initial measurements are normalized into final measurements where each final measurement is for a specific date and time.
- Because a single initial measurement may contain many "readings," a separate final measurement is created for each interval in the initial measurement. For example, if an initial measurement contains 24 hours of 15 minute readings, 96 measurements will be created, each with a specific date and time.
- A Combined Multiplier (created from multipliers defined for the measurement’s measuring component type and install event) is stored for each measurement. In addition, other values are stored for measurements of specific types. The Reading Value (which often differs from the measurement value) is stored for scalar and subtractive interval measurements, and the Reading Condition is stored for subtractive interval measurements. These values are used with measurement reprocessing and other recalculation processes in the event that the original initial measurements have been archived or deleted.
The measurement date/time of a measurement represents the end of the period the measurement value covers. How the start of the period is defined varies slightly based on the type of measuring component associated to the measurement:
- Scalar Measuring Components: the measurement date/time represents the point at which the reading was taken. The period the measurement covers is defined as the previous measurements date/time through the measurement date/time.
- Interval Measuring Components: the measurement date/time represents the end of the interval period. No date/time is stored to represent the beginning of the interval period, rather it is implied by the interval size of the measuring component. For example an interval measuring component with an hourly interval size and a measurement date/time of 01/01/2010 12:00AM represents the measured quantity for the period of 12/31/2009 11:00PM through 01/01/2010 12:00AM.
- For scalar measuring components there exist special circumstances where a final measurement is not eligible for use in processing (e.g. consumption calculation, usage calculation, etc.). To prevent other processes from using these measurements they are marked with a usage flag of "Do Not Use." This is typically the result of the automatic correction of a rollover threshold error when lower quality measurements inaccurate measurements are removed to enable successful calculation of subtractive consumption.
Conditions
Conditions are used to describe the quality of a final measurement and is an important input into many of our processes. During initial measurement data processing these conditions help VEE rules identify the initial measurements that require more advanced validation or estimation. During usage calculations measurement conditions help to inform the billing system whether the billing determinants produced are based on actual data read from a meter or if it has been estimated (or in many cases a combination of the two).
Conditions follow a numeric sequencing that begins at 000000 and goes up to 999999. As the condition code rises numerically so does its perceived quality. Many areas the system take this into account:
- VEE rules use conditions to identify which initial measurement values need to be estimated or adjusted
- Rollover error automatic corrections allow higher quality data to bypass lower quality data in order to achieve a consumption calculation that does not produce an error.
- Usage calculation rules can provide information about the quality of billing determinants based on the underlying measurement data that feeds into those service quantities.
Throughout the system functionality uses condition code ranges to make decisions. In general the ranges are considered to be:
|
Condition Range Start |
Condition Range End |
Description of Range |
|
000000 |
199999 |
No measurement |
|
200000 |
299999 |
Missing Measurement |
|
300000 |
499999 |
Estimated measurement |
|
500000 |
999999 |
Regular measurement |
The ranges of "No Measurement" and "Missing Measurement" at first glance sound synonymous but there is an important distinction. With conditions that fall within the "No Measurement" range the expectation is that no measurement should exist. Whereas, the "Missing Measurement" range implies that a measurement was expected but never received.
Note: in some circumstances, like rollover threshold errors, the regular range is further divided to include a "Superior" range of 9000000 - 999999 which can be used to select the appropriate reading to be used to resolve the error.
During initial measurement processing the Final Measurement Replacement VEE rule can be used to increase the perceived quality of a condition code. For example, the "No Read - Outage" condition which falls in the "No Measurement" range can be considered higher quality than "Estimated Measurements" for the purposes of measurement replacement.
Refer to About IMD Validations for more information on the Final Measurement Replacement VEE rule.
Derived Values
Final measurements can record up to 10 derived values in addition to the "as measured" value. The derivation formula for each value on a final measurement is controlled by the measuring component type.
Derived values are not reliant on consumption values, but can also come from factors, historical data, or another source. For example, a set of measurements can be adjusted or converted into other units of measure. In the below example the first derived value is the result of the application of a loss adjustment factor and the second derived value is the result of applying a pre set formula against the loss adjusted value to compute BTU.
|
Date/Time |
As Measured UOM: CCF SQI: N/A |
Loss Adjusted UOM: CCF SQI: N/A |
Thermal Units UOM: BTU SQI: N/A |
|
01/01/2010 3:00PM |
10 |
10.1 |
10.11 |
|
01/01/2010 4:00PM |
15 |
15.15 |
15.165 |
|
01/01/2010 5:00PM |
10 |
10.1 |
10.11 |
Refer to Understanding Measuring Component Types in the Administration Guide for additional information about configuring derivation algorithms.