On-Demand Operational State Request for Advanced Meters

The operational state of an advanced meter provides information about the various statuses of the advanced meter. You can use enterprise services to request the operation state of an advanced meter.

You can display the requests and the returned operational states in the device transactions and the connection object transactions.

For more information, see: Request Operation State

Profiles with External Profile Values

You can create EDM profiles whose data (profile values and status) is stored in external systems (such as an MDUS system).

For more information, see: Profiles in SAP and MDUS Systems

Time-of-Use Billing for Interval Meters

As an alternative to the RTP interface, you can now also use the time-of-use interface (TOU interface) to bill measured consumption profiles. The TOU interface is primarily intended for billing resisdential customers. When defining a TOU interface, you define the periods for which the profile values are to be aggregated, or for which the peak demand values are to be determined. For each period, you use a time-of-use formula which controls the processing of profile values (for example, aggregation).

The profiles values do not necessarily have to be in the SAP system in order to bill the profile using SAP Utilities. You can also use SAP Utilities to bill profiles if the profile values are managed in an MDUS (Meter Data Unification and Synchronization) system as part of an advanced metering infrastructure. During billing, you can determine the required values by means of an MDUS request.

For more information, see: Time-of-Use Interface

Monitoring AMI Communication and Archiving Service Logs

You can monitor data that is exchanged between SAP Utilities and the MDUS system using enterprise services. You can archive the service logging as well as the messages for service-based AMI communication.

For more information, see:

Monitoring of AMI Communication

Archiving of Advanced Meter Events

Disconnection/Reconnection

You can disconnect and reconnect advanced meters remotely. This means that it is no longer necessary to send a technician to manually disconnect such a device at the premises. You can also reversal (cancel) remote disconnections and remote reconnections.

You can run a monitoring report that displays the status of disconnection and reconnection requests made for both AMI and classical meters.

You can configure the system to create a customer notification work item when a disconnection or reconnection order is saved. SAP CRM agents use work items to contact their customers and inform them of an upcoming disconnection or reconnection.

For more information, see: Disconnection/Reconnection

Meter Reading Functions for AMI

New device allocation for meters that need a separate locking device (breaker)

It is now possible to create new device allocations between a meter and another device called the breaker. The breaker permits control of the remote disconnection and reconnection of the controlled meter.

Restoration of device allocation when a device removal is reversed

When you reverse a device removal, any device allocations that were terminated during the original device removal are restored.

Notification of the MDUS system

The MDUS system is notified immediately in the following cases:

Replication of profiles

The new transaction Profile Synchronization for AMI (transaction EAMIPROFSYNC) is a mass activity designed to replicate existing allocations between profiles and registers of advanced meters in the MDUS system. Allocations can be replicated based on a number of attributes, including profile, device, advanced metering system, and profile role. Since it is a mass activity, this transaction can handle a large number of replications and allows you to set the time and date for the replication.

AMI relevance

You can now specify that devices that are not advanced meters are relevant for AMI. For example, you may have connected a device to a breaker that has AMI capabilities. This means that the meter data can be sent to the MDUS system using a wireless connection.

Master data exchange between the SAP backend and the MDUS system has also been enhanced. The following enhancements to existing services are now available:

Event Management

Send Messages

You can use enterprise services to send messages to an advanced meter or an in-home display. You can use predefined templates to create messages, or you can enter messages directly in the text editor.

If a message is connected to an FI-CA dunning activity, you can use a mass activity to send the message to multiple advanced meters.

For more information, see: Messaging

Managing Worklists for Notifications

You can create work items and worklists for processing notifications with regard to the disconnection or reconnection of services. To be able to do so, you have to create organizational units in Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable, and assign the following standard tasks to them:

You can create a simple model using the report Create Organizational Model in ERP.

To manage work items and worklists, you use the new transaction Manage Worklists. In this transaction, the manager of a department or group can perform the following tasks:

The work items are processed in the SAP CRM system in Financial Customer Care.