This section describes new features and functionality included in this release of Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Management including the following:

This section describes new and enhanced product usability features introduced in this release, including:

The Customer Insights zone of the Customer Program Summary portal now lists in-progress service tasks and work activities related to program enrollment or unenrollment. Previously, only in-progress service tasks were listed. You can navigate directly to the work order through this zone and initiate a cancel or reschedule work activity process flow upon request by the customer. In addition, completion of the process flow addresses the states of connected entities, transitions the service task based on the work activity status update and vice-versa, deactivates enrollment subscriptions for main and related enrollments for cancelled service tasks, and activates enrollment subscriptions for cancelled unenrollment service tasks.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Management is responsible for calculating the financial settlement amount for the customer's participation in demand response events based on commercial demand-based programs. At the conclusion of the demand response event, Oracle Utilities Grid Edge Distributed Energy Resources Management Systems sends the device to an analytics engine and Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Management. The analytics component computes the demand reduction achieved during the event duration and passes it to Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Management as a series of "kW Drop" values. The maximum “kW Drop” value is captured as the “Maximum Drop” for each event.

At the end of a specified period of time (a year, a season, and so on), Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Management uses the average of a set of the highest “Maximum Drop” values and price data to calculate the amount to credit to the enrolled customer who participated in the events that took place during the time period. These credit amounts are sent to the CIS application for processing on the customer's energy bill.

To enable this feature, refer to About Event Settlement Transactions and About Customer Settlement Transactions in the Business User Guide for more information.

The kW drop values to be used for event and customer settlements are received from an external application into Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Management.

When calculating customer settlements for related accounts, results can optionally be grouped and applied to a “parent” customer account instead of the default method of applying results to individual customer accounts.

Related accounts, such as in the case of a chain of retail stores or restaurants, can represented as a group of active program subscriptions under a parent program subscription via the program subscription Settlement Group field. In addition, a Parent Program Subscription can be selected during the customer enrollment process.

When calculating customer settlements for related accounts, the Settlement Aggregation Method flag specifies whether calculation results are “Grouped” (applied to the “parent” customer account) or “Individual” (applied to individual customer accounts).

To enable this feature, refer to About Event Settlement Transactions and About Customer Settlement Transactions in the Business User Guide for more information.

The application creates work activities on the back of different processes such as installation, removal, troubleshooting of controllable assets or in-home energy assessment related work. The field service application commonly sends the work activity to the field worker and subsequently receives the work completion details. The Manual Work Activity Completion process flow allows the utility user, in absence of automated integration with the field service application, to navigate to a process flow from the specific work activity and update the work completion details.

The Initiate Completion button on the Work Order Activity starts the process flow from the Work Activity screen and opens the Work Activity Completion Process Flow panels. Note that the application only displays the button when the activity type has an "Update Asset" and/or "Create Any Service History" completion event type and the work activity status is "In Progress", "In Progress External", "Active", "Sent", or "Finished". The process flow panels allow the creation of configured completion events and the service histories (if any) for the asset and activity. On successful completion of the work activity, the Manual Work Activity Completion process flow transitions any associated service task entities to the appropriate statuses to facilitate the completion of the process.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The Program Type entity drives the related programs and the Service Task Type facilitates configuration of the template work order and identifier to support manual work completion.

You can now configure the Program Service Call process flow to include questionnaires to troubleshoot issues and present appointment slots based on the available crew-shit after the initiation of work activities. Additionally, the process flow enables you can perform call backs or keep service calls open for escalation purposes or view and select previously escalated service calls from the process flow and link these to tasks.

This streamlines the trouble call initiation process by giving you the flexibility to select appointment slots based on available crew-shifts.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The enrollment process allows the contact center agent to offer related programs to the customer on the call (for example, a customer enrolling in a Smart Thermostat Demand Response program is also eligible to enroll in the related Energy Efficiency program). In this release, several service scripts enable the contact center agent to bundle the different activities under a single work order after the enrollment in the related programs. These service scripts instruct the process flow panel to retrieve the available appointment slots for the different activities and enable the agent to present to the customer on the call these slots for selection. The application updates the selected appointment slots on the corresponding work activities and sends these to the appropriate field technician. When there are crew-shift slots common across the different activities, the application presents appointment slots that are based only on the aggregated work hour availability.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The Program Type entity drives the related programs and the Service Task Type facilitates configuration of the template work order and identifier to support bundled enrollments.

The Calculate Score button on the Controllable Asset portal allows you to initiate control score calculations. Previously, the application calculated and sent control scores by configured batch processes (scheduled or otherwise). For troubleshooting issues or errors, control score calculations for individual devices were initiated manually.

This provides visualization of the recent control score for a controllable asset.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

You can now configure asset attributes by asset type on Engineering Specifications. Previously, new Engineering Specification business objects were needed and created to configure asset attributes on asset types.

You do not have to create Engineering Specification business objects to capture different asset attributes.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The application provides these appointment-related configuration fields in the Default Details section of the Action Method portal:

You can set these configuration options for enrollment and unenrollment processes of template activities.

Additionally, these new drop-downs in Device Setup panel of enrollment and unenrollment process flows allow you to select the crew and work schedule for the appointment slot:

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The Enrollment Process Flow now identifies existing device location from a previous enrollment for reuse in a new enrollment. The process flow determines the reuse of the device location based on the program to enroll to and the registered device type. The Enrollment Process Flow also cleans up any previous association between a removed device and its device location when enrolling the removed device.

The following panels of the Enrollment Process Flow include new and updated fields to support device location reuse:

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

You can move "Rejected" or "In Repair" tracked assets to the "In Receipt" status. This bypasses the "In Store" status. Previously, when "In Receipt" tracked assets encountered failures, the application moved these assets to the "Rejected" or "In Repair" status only and the assets were returned to the vendor.

This reduces implementation costs.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The Program portal has been enhanced to filter available Specifications based on asset type, program type, and program.

This provides a list of device specifications that is compatible with the selected asset type, program type, and program.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Currently, contacts within the application can be associated to the main customer via the master program subscription (metered service) which also links it to the supply point (metered service point). However, in scenarios where the primary customer is associated to more than one supply points and which could be separately enrolled on to programs there a requirement to be able to capture contact details for each of them, specifically to record attributes like contact name, email, phone and address. For example, contact information of property administrator for an estate, branch manager for a retail outlet.

To support this feature, a new type of contact - a point of contact - has been created that can be associated to each metered service point and allow relevant information to be captured. The existing types of contacts have been enhanced to support indicating whether it is the primary customer contact and point of contact, or just a point of contact. The point of contact also facilitates capturing of contact information for external entities like aggregators. The Contact portal has been enhanced with a new zone to display the associated service points that the point of contact represents.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The location of a controllable asset on the electrical network with the hierarchical information around the transformer, feeder, and substation it is connected with, allows the utility user to group and view the assets and monitor their performance. Network model information and any updates to it are received from an external system like Oracle Network Management System. A typical distribution utility might have thousands of transformers and might rather prefer to group assets by feeders or substations for better operations, visualizations and performance monitoring. This feature extends the existing data model to introduce new objects for mapping feeders and substations on top of the existing transformer and facility objects. On receipt of a network location upload file that contains a list of service points and its associate network entities, the application validates the individual records and creates the transformer, feeder and substation entities and subsequently creates or updates the network location to appropriately associate them.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

The current version of the application allows the user to perform event-based settlements to incentivize the customer either for the energy reduction or demand reduction achieved based on measurements received from external systems. However, there are other drivers for incentivizing the customer such as sign-up incentives for enrollments, referral rebates, and incentives for remaining enrolled during the peak season. Customers may also receive penalties or fees for instance if they terminate their enrollments before the contracted period, or when the utility incurs charges related to device repairs, or upgrade devices. This feature allows the user to configure incentive and fee calculation rules which can be scheduled to execute and calculate the incentive and fees on a regular frequency. The incentive and fees are then sent to the CIS billing system to be passed on to the customer.

A new access mode for Allow Attribute Update is introduced in this release. Users allowed to add/update DER attributes must be granted access to this access mode.

Aggregators are special service providers that facilitate communication between the Utility and Distributed Energy Resource (DER) end devices and, in some cases control and manage DER end devices to provide energy and other services to utilities via the electric power system. As per the IEEE 2030.5 protocol, aggregators are modelled as special end devices to enable mapping of DER devices being registered and enrolled by them. Utilities typically enter into a contractual agreement with one or more than one aggregators such that authorized aggregators can offer contracted programs to the end customers on behalf of the Utility.

In this release, a new portal allows users to record values for a set of attributes and create an aggregator and map the programs that it is allowed to offer on behalf of the utility. The application enforces validation on the aggregator for uniqueness and program validity. In addition to this, the DER registration process has been modified to allow the inbound web service to allow the external aggregator reference to be passed on the inbound registration request. The application validates that registration requests are processed only when received from valid aggregators that are setup within the application, and the program for which the DER is being registered is a valid entry on the list of programs offered by that aggregator. On successful registration, the aggregator identifier is associated to the DER asset that is being registered.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Asset search provides the capability to select a Predefined Characteristic Type query filter from options that are sorted alphabetically by description. The Asset Attributes zone also uses Predefined Characteristic Type, providing you a list of attributes during editing that are sorted and displayed alphabetically by description.

This enhances the user experience by displaying Predefined Characteristic Types drop-down values by description and in alphabetical order, making the selection in Asset Characteristic search and editing in Asset Attributes easier.

No steps are required to enable this feature.

The Detailed Description field (with a 4000 character limit) in the following Asset Location business objects enables you to provide a clearer and comprehensive asset location description:

Also, the Asset Location search now enables you to search records with detailed descriptions using the Description filter.

No steps are required to enable this feature.

You can now assign sequence numbers for valid attributes on an asset type for assets and specifications for that asset type. Those attributes on assets and specifications will be displayed in the order of the sequence numbers.

This gives you control of the order in which attributes are displayed.

No steps are required to enable this feature.

The existing device registration process has been extended to allow the utility to capture program information in addition to the controllable devices installed at a customer's location. For instance, if a customer has connected their battery storage inverter (Distributed Energy Resource (DER)) to the grid, and an authorized energy aggregator has been contracted by the utility to enroll the customer on to a storage incentive program and register their battery storage inverter device, the energy aggregator can now invoke a single web service to initiate the device registration and enrollment to inform the utility of the customer, their location, their device settings (also known as Nameplate Ratings), and the program details. The utility validates the customer details and device specifications received in the incoming request and initiates the registration and enrollment process. On successful enrollment, the device details are captured and sent over to the operational applications (like Edge DERMS).

In this release, the DAM Enrollment API is being repurposed to allow aggregators to register DER devices and enroll them in a program. The incoming data is validated against the existing customer details, device specifications, DER aggregator details, and the program details maintained within Digital Asset Management. The processing mechanism is similar to the DER Registration API except that the customer and their devices are now enrolled on to an actual program instead of the default registration program. Device attributes are saved either in the asset or in its specification depending on the configuration on the asset type. On successful enrollment, the application is configured to send an outbound synchronization message to external applications (like Oracle Utilities Edge DERMS) which includes the device nameplate ratings and program information. The existing Enrollment Sync outbound request is enhanced to include the additional attributes for DER devices in adherence to the IEEE 2030.5 standards.

No steps are required to enable this feature.

New context menu items have been added in a preferred sequence across the following entities within Digital Asset Management to improve user navigation:

This improves product usability and allows users to efficiently navigate across entities.

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Program Rules are maintained within Digital Asset Management and associated to Programs, but the actual evaluation for event participation based on these rules are typically done in an external system (such as Edge DERMS) that is responsible for creating the events and reserving customer's devices for participating in the events. The Program Rule Portal within Digital Asset Management allows end users to create and update program rules and the related rule parameters, and the Program Portal facilitates association or dis-association of a rule from a particular program. This feature extends the Program Rule attributes to allow the end user to capture additional parameters such as availability for events, allowed number of customer overrides, and allowed duration of events. In addition, the feature also creates a new Program Rule outbound message when either a new rule is associated or disassociated from a Program or when any rule parameters are updated for an existing rule that is already associated to a Program.

It is important to note that creation of program rules and its attributes is independent of its association to an actual Program, and the utility may choose to not associate any rules to a particular program. Based on this, Digital Asset Management determines the conditions whether an outbound synchronization is required or not, and if required it uses the synchronization request pattern to create and send the outbound message to the configured external system (such as Edge DERMS).

To enable this feature, update the Edge DERMS Integration Parameters section of the Digital Asset Integration Master Configuration (X1-DigitalAssetMasterConfig) to specify the Program Rule and Asset Customer outbound message types to use for synchronizing program rule information with Edge DERMS.

This portal is a streamlined version of the Work and Asset Management asset portal and includes only the tabs relevant to Operational Device Management assets:

This improves the user experience. It focuses you on only relevant Operational Device Management-related information.

Users must be granted "Inquire" access to the Operational Device Management Asset Portal (W1ODMAST) application service to use this feature.

The Operational Device Management Asset portal is secured by the Operational Device Management Asset Portal (W1ODMAST) application service. You must be granted Inquire access to view this page.

The following Operational Device Management asset business objects are impacted by this change:

To opt out of the Operational Device Management Asset portal and continue using the Work and Asset Management Asset Portal for Operational Device Management assets:

The character limit of the Service History Comments field is now 4000, addressing the need for more detailed record-keeping and overall usability. Previously, the character limit was 254. This update aligns with the requirements for improved documentation and operational efficiency.

This provides the capability for more detailed and comprehensive record-keeping.

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Digital Asset Management serves as the system of records for capturing the details of an Aggregator and associated attributes including a list of programs that the utility has contracted the Aggregators for customer enrollment and device registration. Operational applications (like Grid Edge DERMS and CSIP Server - LEC) need to know about the different Aggregators and the DER devices managed by them in order to group the DERs and establish communication and control via the communication gateway. A utility may get into contractual agreements with one or more such Aggregators and allow them to offer different programs to the utility end customers. For instance, a Solar only aggregator can be contracted to offer Solar PV programs offered by the utility, whereas a Storage type or an EV Type aggregator may offer Managed Charging and Discharging Programs.

This feature allows Digital Asset Management to trigger an outbound message to external systems (such as Edge DERMS) when a new Aggregator entity is created or an existing Aggregator or its attributes are modified. Digital Asset Management determines the conditions whether an outbound sync is required or not, and if required it uses the sync request pattern to create and send the outbound message to the configured external system (such as Edge DERMS). It is important to note that some industry standard protocols like IEEE 2030.5, categorize the Aggregator as a special device and require it to be setup and provisioned on the utility communication server (Utility CSIP server), subsequent to which the Aggregator can request for the setup details by reaching out to the utility server path. If the Aggregator is yet to register or enroll devices, it will only be able to view details about itself on the communication server, however if the Aggregator has already registered DER devices, it shall receive the details of those devices and can update the device's actual settings.

To enable this feature, update the Edge DERMS Integration Parameters section of the Digital Asset Integration Master Configuration (X1-DigitalAssetMasterConfig) to specify the Aggregator outbound message type to use for synchronizing program rule information with Edge DERMS.

This section describes new program enhancements introduced in this release, including:

The Reduction Capacity default enables the application to measure performance by aggregating the reduction capacity default across active enrollments at a program level and to provide you with an estimate of the overall reduction capacity of a Demand Response Program.

This provides the capability to record a default reduction capacity at the program level, enabling you to estimate the overall reduction capacity for the program.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

This section describes new and enhanced web services features introduced in this release, including:

The enrollment and unenrollment process can be initiated from different sources for example, the contact center agent initiating the process flow or the end customer initiating the process through the utility's self-service portal. In this release, the Work Activity Appointment Slots (X1-WorkActivityAppointmentSlots) REST web service enables the end customer to initiate the enrollment or unenrollment process flow and fetch appointment slots driven by the available crew-shifts for the activity type and the specified duration via the self-serve portal. Previously, the process flow only allowed the contact center agent to fetch the available slots and present these to the end customer on the call for selection.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Utilities typically engage authorized third-party agencies to facilitate the grid connectivity of generation Distributed Energy Resource (DER) assets, which is managed via the grid interconnection process. Interconnection details define the specific DER settings for a particular customer based on the contractual agreement with the utility. This feature allows the application to receive the interconnection attributes of a DER asset from an external system that handles the interconnection process for the utility. The application provides a new REST API that can be invoked to pass the interconnection attributes. The incoming data is validated across existing asset manufacturer and model combination, leading to the creation of an interconnection service task to allow the initial creation of the DER asset.

While nameplate attributes are mapped to the asset via its specifications, this feature facilitates the capturing of interconnection details at an asset attribute level via characteristic types. This also introduces an update to the DER Registration REST API and its processing, where a new processing flag at the asset type determines whether the DER asset requires interconnection followed by registration or just registration. For instance, assets that enable load reduction like smart thermostats do not require a grid interconnection, whereas assets capable of feeding energy back to the grid like solar panels or energy storages need to be interconnected prior to being controlled via a program. During registration of assets, that need to be interconnected the application validates that the asset has already been created and the interconnection is completed. The outbound asset sync message in such scenarios include the interconnection attributes in addition to the nameplate attributes.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

This feature introduces new Request Task Type and Request Task business objects for DER Interconnection. Users require access to the following application services to initiate and complete the DER interconnection process:

The DER Processing Flag (in the Asset Type) is now required during DER Registration.

This section describes new integration-related enhancements introduced in this release, including:

The Device Registration process allows you to capture information for Distributed Energy Resource (DER) controllable devices installed at a customer's location. For example, an authorized energy aggregator initiates the device registration request to inform a utility when their customer connects a solar inverter to the grid. The energy aggregator also declares the location of the solar inverter and its manufacturer settings (Nameplate Ratings as per IEEE 2030.5 standards).

The utility validates the customer details and device specifications from the device registration request. The utility captures the device details and sends the information to the operational applications after a successful validation. The operational applications map the device details to the network model.

In this release, the DER Device Management (X1-DERDeviceManagement) API allows aggregators to register controllable devices like distributed energy resources. This includes the devices' nameplate capabilities. X1-DERDeviceManagement validates incoming data against the customer information received from the CIS application and the configured device specifications attributes within the application. The Device Registration process is similar to the Enrollment API except that the process enrolls all the devices to an internal registration program. The process saves device attributes in the asset or in the specification, depending on the asset type's configuration. The application sends an outbound synchronization request that includes the device nameplate ratings to external applications like Oracle Utilities Grid Edge DERMS upon a successful enrollment.

Additionally, the existing Enrollment Sync outbound request now includes additional attributes for Distributed Energy Resource devices as per IEEE 2030.5 standards.

To enable this feature, complete these procedures:

Grant "Allow Attribute Update" Access to User Groups of the Controllable Asset Type BO

Grant "Allow Attribute Update Access" to User Groups of the Controllable Asset Specification BO

Initiation of the enrollment and unenrollment processes can start from different sources such as from a customer using the utilities' self-serve portal or from a contact center agent. The Work Activity Appointment Slots (X1-WorkActivityAppointmentSlots) API allows you to reschedule a work order activity based on the available crew-shifts for the activity type and specified duration. For example, X1-WorkActivityAppointmentSlots retrieves and presents the available appointment slot and allows the customer to make an appointment.

This improves the user experience when rescheduling appointments from self-serve portals based on crew availability.

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Distributed Energy Resource (DER) devices can be enrolled and managed by an Aggregator. Digital Asset Management serves as the system of record for capturing the details of an Aggregator and associated attributes including a list of programs that the utility has contracted the Aggregators. Once an Aggregator is successfully created or updated in Digital Asset Management, it will trigger an outbound sync message to update Edge DERMS about the change. A new Oracle Integration Cloud Process is exposed as a REST API to sync the aggregators from Digital Asset Management to Edge DERMS. For Aggregators that support the IEEE 2030.5 communication protocol, Edge DERMS will send the relevant Aggregator attributes to be setup on the Utility CSIP Server (LEC).

This pre-built integration provides significant business value for a utility by automating parts of the Aggregator registration and provisioning process.

To enable this feature, refer to the Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Cloud Service to Grid Edge Distributed Energy Resources Management System Configuration Guide for more information.

A set of event related constraints or rules can be maintained for each program by the utility. These Program rules and their associated attributes are configured by the end user in Digital Asset Management and associated to one or more Programs, and over time the rule attributes can be updated, or the rule can be disassociated from the Program. Digital Asset Management creates an outbound sync message to Oracle Integration Cloud under such circumstances and a new Oracle Integration Cloud Process is exposed as a REST API to sync the program rules from Digital Asset Management to Edge DERMS. Created or Updated Program or Program Rules that are not linked will not trigger a sync request creation. Oracle Integration Cloud receives the message from Digital Asset Management and transforms the payload to map it to the Edge DERMS fields and invokes the new Update Program API in Edge DERMS.

This pre-built integration provides significant business value for utility operations looking to use Edge DERMS for creating Events and evaluating the optimal set of customer devices to participate in that event.

To enable this feature, refer to the Oracle Utilities Digital Asset Cloud Service to Grid Edge Distributed Energy Resources Management System Configuration Guide for more information.