Processing Raw Data

The raw interval data linked to your registers is not used directly by rate algorithms. The rate algorithms only process profile data linked to the service agreement. Valid interval register data is available for use by the profile data derivation algorithms to produce billable profile data for a service agreement. For example, a profile data derivation algorithm may aggregate the register data from multiple registers to produce a new load curve.

A challenge for the aggregation algorithms is to determine which register data is applicable for a given profile. The service agreement may be linked to multiple service points, each with many different possible configurations. Because the derivation algorithm is on the interval profile type, you cannot explicitly tell the algorithm which registers to use. The following information may be useful to the algorithms to determine the appropriate registers:

• Service points linked to the service agreement. First and foremost, the algorithms restrict the selection of registers to those for the service points linked to the service agreement.
• UOM and SQI. Each interval register type indicates a unit of measure and an optional SQI that may be used by algorithms. For example, the base algorithm, which performs aggregation, finds interval registers with a UOM that matches that of the interval profile type. This algorithm also has soft parameters to indicate whether the SQI codes on the interval register type and interval profile type should match.
• If these attributes are not enough to indicate the correct registers to the algorithms, characteristics are also available for use. There are characteristics on the service point, the SA/SP and the meter that may all be used to capture information available to the processing algorithms to determine the appropriate registers.

Applying Adjustments To Raw Data Prior to Aggregation

It is common for a contract to require adjustments to raw data prior to aggregating the data onto a profile. For example, perhaps all the data for a given register should be adjusted by 5% based on contract requirements. These adjustments may be applicable to only certain interval registers for the contract. In addition, it is common for more than one contract to use the same register data and perhaps only certain contracts require an adjustment to that data.

To satisfy this requirement, characteristics on the SA/SP may be used to indicate adjustment factors. The appropriate derivation algorithms may then apply the adjustment factors while aggregating the data.