About Usage Calculation

Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management can calculate and publish usage calculated from measurement data to service providers on an ongoing basis. In addition, external systems can request usage whenever needed. Usage calculations derive a usage transaction's usage quantities using the measurements linked to a usage subscription's service points.

Before bill determinants can be calculated, you must first create a Usage Subscription. The usage subscription defines the external system to which the data should be sent as well as the usage calculation group that will be used for calculation. The usage calculation rules defined for the usage calculation group are responsible for performing the specific calculations, validations, or estimations for bill determinants.

Usage Service Quantities (bill determinants) are derived from the Measurements of the measuring components installed at the Usage Subscription's Service Points during the calculation period. A Service Point is linked to measuring components through an Install Event linked to the measuring components' Device Configuration.

The results of all calculations performed by Usage Subscriptions are stored as a Usage Transaction.

At any instance in time:

  • A Usage Subscriptions may be linked to multiple Service Points
  • A Service Point may be linked to a single Device Configuration
  • A Device Configuration may have multiple measuring components

The calculation period for bill determinant calculations can span many days and over this period:

  • The Service Points linked to the Usage Subscription can change (Service Points can be added and removed)
  • The Device Configurations installed at the Service Point can change (due to device reconfigurations and meter exchanges)

This means that values for each Usage Subscription can be calculated using multiple Service Points and measuring components.

The Usage Calculation process has a number of different objects that are detailed below that allow for configurability and flexibility in how the process executes.

Usage Calculation Groups

Usage Calculation Groups are collections of usage calculation rules that are used to either calculate bill determinants or validate bill determinants. During the Usage Transaction process, the system executes the usage calculation rules defined in the usage calculation group referenced on the usage subscription. The rules within a usage calculation group are defined in a specific sequence, allowing control over the order in which the rules are executed.

For information on configuration, reference the related section for Configuring Usage Calculation Groups in the Administrattive User Guide.

Usage Calculation Rules

The specific calculation, validation, or estimation processing performed on a Usage Transaction is defined in individual usage calculation rules, each performing a specific set of targeted logic. The base product contains many usage calculation rules you can use in your implementation, but you can also create your own custom usage calculation rules.

For a list of validation usage calculation rules, reference the About Usage Validations section. For a list of estimation usage calculation rules, reference the About Usage Estimations section. For a list of all other usage calculation rules that handle calculation of bill determinants, reference the Inventory of Other Usage Calculation Rules section.

For information on configuration, reference the related section for Configuring Usage Calculation Rules in the Administration Guide.

Usage Transaction Exceptions

Each usage calculation rule defines an exception type and severity that specify how exceptions are tracked by the system. When a Usage Transaction fails some part of a usage calculation rule, an exception of the type specified for the failed usage calculation rule is created. A single Usage Transaction can have multiple exceptions, one (or more) for each rule that failed. This allows users to see all of the problems detected during the Usage Calculation process.

There are three levels of severity for Usage Transaction Exceptions:

  • Information: Used to highlight minor issues, but not sufficient to cause the Usage Transaction to be put into a failure state. Exceptions of this category can be used to report on the frequency of interesting, but not fatal issues
  • Issues: Used to report a problem that will prevent the usage transaction from being sent. Multiple "issue exceptions" can be created during usage transaction processing. If at least one issue exists after all rules have been applied, the usage transaction is transitioned to a failure state requiring review and approval.
  • Terminate: Used to report a severe issue that will cause the Usage Calculation process to stop and the Usage Transaction to be transitioned immediately to a failure state requiring review and approval. Only one terminate exception can be issued (as the first one causes calculation processing to stop on for a Usage Transaction). This should be used for cases where manual override / approval isn't accurate. For example, a "Curve Not Continuous" error that says the interval data doesn't cover the full usage period should always be set to Terminate as an Exception Severity.

Note that exceptions are not deleted when a Usage Transaction is adjusted or corrected. After any issues are corrected or the Usage Transaction is overridden (or manually completed), the exceptions persist in a closed state for reporting purposes.

In addition to exceptions, usage processing can also trigger the creation of To Do Entries related to failed validations. If Issue or terminate exceptions exist for an initial measurement, a To Do Entry is created when the usage transaction is transitioned to the Exception state. The To Do Type and default To Do Role of this To Do Entry are defined on the Enter system event for the Exception state of the business object used to define the usage transaction.

To Do Entries created in this way can be routed to different roles depending on the exception's message category and number (using the To Do Type's Message Overrides tab).

For information on configuration, reference the related section for Configuring Usage Transaction Exception Types in the Administration Guide.

Usage Calculation Rule Eligibility Criteria

Usage calculation rule eligibility criteria are user-definable conditions that could cause a given usage calculation rule to be applied or skipped. This can involve the evaluation of some attribute of the usage subscription or service point, or something else entirely. A usage calculation rule can have multiple eligibility criteria for determining if the rule should be applied or skipped, based on a user-defined sequence.

For information on configuration, reference the related section for Configuring Usage Calculation Rules in the Administration Guide.