Overview

Prior to running the first execution of periodic estimation an assessment should be made regarding the current state of measurement data on your measuring components. Without proper preparation the first execution can take an extremely long time due to large gaps on measuring components. Since the D1-SMMTR job is threaded by device, all of the initial measurements for a device's interval and scalar channels will be created within a single work unit. This will lead to an abnormally large number of transactions being created within a single commit which can degrade performance.

There are several options available for establishing a consistent starting point for estimation across all measuring component types:

1. Configure the Maximum Days to Estimate on each periodic estimation eligible measuring component type. This limits the number of days periodic estimation will look backwards to create estimations. For example, if set to 60 the no estimations over 60 days old would be created and all measuring components would have their Last Contiguous Measurement Date Time set to 60 days ago or more recent.

2. Configure the No of Hours in the Past to Retrieve Last Usable Measurement option on the Measurement Data Options feature configuration. This configuration works in two specific ways:

   • When the measuring component’s Last Contiguous Measurement Date/Time has not been initialized then this setting is used to search for usable measurements starting from the Process Date/Time less the number of hours configured.

     • If a measurement is found, the most recent measurement within that window will be used.

     • If no measurements are found, estimates will be generated starting from the calculated start date/time.

       Note: Note: if the calculated start date/time is very recent and not yet eligible for estimation then the measuring component’s Latest Contiguous Measurement Date/Time will be updated with that value.

   • When the Last Contiguous Measurement Date/Time has already been set for a measuring component this setting will be used similar to the Maximum Days To Estimate and will limit how far back estimation will occur.

3. Use the Initialize Measuring Component Dates (D1-IMCDT) batch control just prior to the first run of periodic estimation to explicitly set the Latest Contiguous Measurement Date/Time across all measuring components to the date you would like to estimate from.

It is important to take into consideration that the periodic estimation process is tuned with the expectation that it will create estimations for a small percentage of the meter population (generally around 2%) for one day. If on the initial run all devices have measuring components that require estimations to be created, it is increasing the typical work load exponentially:  100% of the meter populate for many days.

Lastly, it is very important, regardless of the method used, to test a small population of meters before running Periodic Estimation (D1-SMMTR) on your entire meter population. Isolated testing will alert you to potential performance issues without having to cancel a multi-day D1-SMMTR execution.