About Service Points
Service points are physical locations (usually a meter socket) at which a company supplies service and are used in Oracle Utilities Customer To Meter to store information describing the type of service supplied and how it is measured. Devices are installed at service points, and the relationship between individual service points and devices can change over time. For example, over time different devices may be installed at a service point, and a device may be installed at different service points.
A service point may only have one device. If multiple devices at a service point are required, define a parent and child service point relationship to create a hierarchy of service points. On each service point, users will be able to specify a parent service point. An example of this feature would be to link each condominium in a building to a parent service point that represents the common areas of the building. Another example would be a deregulated service point that allows multiple devices per service point. In this example, the parent service point would be the market service point ID and the children service points would relate to the individual devices.
Attributes used to define Service Points can include the following:
- Basic information about the Service Point, including address, time zone, market, parent Service Point (if applicable), status, and main contact
- Specifics related to whether or not the current Service Point supplies service to life support equipment, or if the load supplied to the Service Point is considered sensitive
- Information related to field work performed at the current Service Point, including any applicable warnings or instructions
- The measurement cycle, route, and route sequence for the Service Point
Service Points and Characteristics
Characteristics can be defined for Customer To Meter service points using the SP Characteristics zone on the Service Point portal. Only characteristics of types defined for the service point’s type in the Valid SP Characteristic Types zone on the Service Point portal can be defined for the service point.
Service Points and Asset Locations
In Oracle Utilities Customer To Meter, when a service point is created, a corresponding asset location is created. Asset locations are maintained using the Service Point portal. If the service point has a contact associated with it, a corresponding contact will be created for the asset location.
Service Point Equipment
The Service Point Equipment Information section defines items (devices) in the system that may be installed at the service point over time, such as a current transformer at an electric service point or a backflow device at a water service point. Items of this type are most often created from an asset being added to the system (see Assets and Devices for more information).
Service point equipment information includes the following for each item installed:
- Item ID: The ID and information string for the item (or items)
- Installation Date/Time: The date and time at which the item (or items) was installed at the service point
- Removal Date/Time: The date and time at which the item (or items) was removed from the service point
- Equipment Count: The number of items installed at the service point, if applicable
- Comments: Optional comments about the item’s installation at the service point
When an item is installed or removed from a service point, the asset disposition of the items’ corresponding asset is updated accordingly.
Deleting an item from the Service Point Equipment Information section deletes the record of its installation at the service point (including its installation history), but does NOT delete the item from the system.
Service Point Access via Access Groups and Divisions
Access to service points (and objects and data related to the service point, see below) can be restricted based on Access Groups and Divisions.
Restriction via Access Groups
Service point data access restriction based on Access Group is enabled by default. Users can only access service points (and related objects and data) with an Access Group associated with the user via Access Role on the Access Security /Access Security tab of the User Preferences portal. See The Big Picture of Row Security in the Administrative User Guide for more information about Access Groups and Access Roles. Restriction via Access Groups applies to all service point queries, including use of the Service Point Search zone, the Route Management and 360 Search portals, and service point queries on other zones and portals.
Restriction via Division
Refer to Using CIS Division for Operational Segmentation in the Administrative User Guide for information about restricting service point data access in Oracle Utilities Customer To Meter.
When this restriction is in effect, users can only access service points (and related objects and data) with a CIS Division (or CIS Divisions) associated with the user on the User Miscellaneous Information zone on the Miscellaneous tab of the User portal. This applies to all service point queries, including use of the Service Point Search zone, the Route Management and 360 Search portals, and service point queries on other zones and portals.
Unbadged Items
Items that do not have any unique identification are referred to as "unbadged." These types of items, unlike "badged" items, do not have a device to represent them. Instead they are associated to service points with the service point category of "multi-item." For these types of service points a list of "unbadged" items can be configured to represent the items that require usage to be calculated. This is an effective dated list that allows for changes over time to the type and count of items over time. The consumption of the list of items is either calculated using the service quantity associated to the item types listed or by using the installation override quantity that can be specified on the service point.
Refer to Multi Time Zone Support for additional information on the importance of the Service Point time zone.