OEB EBT Standards Working Group

Minutes for April 11, 2003 – Approved

Item / Discussion / Action Items & Prime
ADMINISTRATION
Minutes from April 4, 2003 /
  • The April 4th minutes are approved
/ Unknown minutes volunteer for April 17
General Information /
  • Next week meeting will be Thursday April 17, 2003
/ Mark: to appoint a minutes taker for next week
MARKET NOTIFICATION
Update of market distribution of GI 734 (Prescribed fees) and GIs 702,711,712 (Meter Changes) to market. /
  • The OEB Board will send out a notification to all Market participants detailing all of the GI’s and DC’s that are approved (GI 734, GI 702, GI 711, GI 712, GI 715, GI 725, GI 730, DCC 01, DCC 02)
  • The timeline that is associated for the approved GI’s is to be considered immediate unless otherwise stated in the GI or DC.
  • The OEB notification will also point everyone to the new web page where all future updates will be captured.
  • The OEB will send out a separate notification to address MPMA non-designate customers. GI (730). If this does not happen it will be included with the first notification
  • Time lines on the MPMA notification is by April 25, 2003
  • The MPMA cheques should be issued in May 2003
  • MPMA is to be 100% outside of the EBT
  • DCC 03 and DCC 04 will be discussed at an AG meeting. (Conference call) They will be included in the notification if they are approved in time.
/ Brian/Russ: to setup AG meeting to review DCC 03 and DCC 04
Mark: Update AG approval notice on GIs on web site
Other meetings to discuss the MPMA issues (this is not an EBT issue)
Update of AG review/approval of GI 715, 725, 730, GI 686 DCC 01, 02, 03, and 04. /
  • Items DCC 03 and DCC 04 are not going to be included unless the AG Committee has met and approved

Review market notification by the hubs of finalized v2.2 schemas and IGs /
  • The timeline for the 2.2 schema’s will be included in the OEB notification
  • It was stressed that the Hubs contact all of their customers to notify them of the new schemas (v 2.2)
  • SPI has sent out a technical bulletin to update their customer’s
  • Systrends will send out a technical bulletin on Monday April 14, 2003
  • Savage data has not sent out a formal technical bulletin as it is waiting for formal notification from the OEB
  • Version 2.1a is optional unless the trading partners agree. It is the responsibility of the Market participants to work out the details.
/ Mark: will contact all of the Retailers and find out if anyone will be sending out ‘RetailerBillAmount’ in their IBR before July 7, 2003.
Work Plan:
Work Plan* & Master Issues List* review. /
  • No changes
/ Mark: to update the issues list
Recap of Monday’s v2.2 implementation strategy conference call with WG and OEB representatives. /
  • The April 4th minutes were circulated and discussed at this meeting
  • Per Brian Hewson and Russ Holden – The Market will continue with V 2.2 as planned.
  • V 2.2 will still be in place for July 7, 2003
  • V2.1a is now optional unless agreed to between trading partners
  • It was noted that some LDC’s may not be able to send ISD’s and IST’s and the OEB is aware of this
  • Brian/Russ will be reviewing the status of these LDC’s and what compliance power that Brian can use to enforce compliancy
  • The Retailers are aware that it is unlikely that many LDC’s will be sending any 2.1a transactions. Most will be going from 2.1 directly to 2.2.
/ Brian/Russ: monitor the Market participant status
GI 686: Testing & Implementation Strategies: continue discussion and review of spreadsheet: v2.2 Market Readiness*.
GI 735* (v2.2 Rollout Strategies): continue review, now as a new GI. / Roll out strategy
  • Mark to update the GI 735 with detailed examples
  • The Readiness contact list should have contact names for each Market Participant- at least 2 names (technical and implementation)
  • LDC’s should notify their trading partners if they cannot populate the Source Transaction Reference Number during the transition period. The static value ‘UNKNOWN’ will be used for such purposes in v2.2.
  • Section 3 in (GI 735) will be changed to read 6 business days
  • The OEB should be the body to monitor the readiness spread sheet
  • Each week we will be updating the readiness spreadsheet. The e-mail is to be sent to Russ H., all updates must be received by Wednesday 9:00 am. Participants should sent Russ strictly their row of the spreadsheet, not free-form text.
  • The roll out dates should be listed on the spread sheet, expected to be no later than Jul 7
  • All conference calls will include Brian H. and Russ H. (OEB), they will be making any decisions at that time
  • There will be conference calls on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday on the implementation weekend to update status
  • Thursday 9:00 am conference call will be used to discuss activity
  • Saturday 6:00 pm conference call-Hubs to report on documents that are stranded. (Documents that are not downloaded)
  • Sunday 4:00 pm conference call is when the rollback decision will be made. (Only if a catastrophic emergency)
  • If another call is required on Sunday it will be determined at the 4:00 pm call.
  • Prior to conversion weekend (on or about June 27th) at the Hub’s discretion they will send out a notification to their subscribers regarding pending files that need to be downloaded.
  • Wednesday July 3, 2003 will be the cut off day for sending the information to Russ H. to update the readiness spread sheet
  • The hubs should remind their market participants of the conference calls prior to the implementation weekend
  • The Monday 4:00 pm conference call is to notify the market participants of the status of the implementation.
New columns to the Readiness Spread sheet
  • CIS vendors will be added to the spread sheet
  • Any LDC’s who are using 2.1a will be added to the spread sheet, this will help assess the readiness
  • Add in roll out dates
Hub Sand Box Status
  • Savage data test Hub is ready now; Savage data will provide free logons to it test hub for those interested
  • Systrends will be ready no later than June 1
  • SPI will roll out each of the required components during May (Schedule TBD shortly)
System testing
  • Review of the pre market testing to see what ideas we could build on
  • System testing should use CIS systems where applicable
  • The scenarios should include both positive and negative testing
  • These tests should focus on the affected transactions within GI 686 (IBR, IBRC, ISD, IST etc.)
  • Assume most common cases, i.e. no enrolls, drops, CCLs, etc.
  • The testing should involve a full cycle starting from the LDC through to the Hub and on to the Retailer
  • The Retailers will select preference of how many and exactly which accounts to test with the LDC’s; both parties must agree on this number and accounts
Testing
  • For simplicity’s sake, scenarios to be selected from the GI 686 document’s examples.
  • Any stage can be completed earlier or be more extensive than indicated here at the discretion of the trading partners
Preliminary testing- this will be one Retailer to one LDC
  • This will test XML validation and CIS processing for a simple case in order for retailers to shake-down their testing processes
  • Requires set-up of test CISs connected to test spokes and sandbox hubs
  • This must be completed by May 27, 2003
  • This will be 1 to 1 testing
First round testing-this will include 3-5 LDC’s per Retailer
  • This will be completed the week of June 2-6
Second round testing-this will include 3-5 LDC’s per Retailer
  • This will be completed the week of June 9-14
  • The third and fourth weeks can be used for cleanup and retest. This will demonstrate to the OEB that the Market participants are still continuing to test as well as working on cleaning up any problems
DCB Testing Scenarios
Preliminary Testing: Use example 1 (1.4.1)
1.4.5 Example 1 - Simple Transaction Flow
  • Customer with a metered service (using 500 kWh) with a Service period of May 1-15th and an unmetered service (using 100 kWh) with a Service Period of May 16-31st. Both services are captured on one Usage transaction.
  • The WAHSP is different for each service period in this example.
Round 1 & 2: Use example 5 or 6 (at the LDC’s discretion)
1.4.5 Example 5 - Usage-Cancel Occurs After Billing (ReBill)
  • Customer with a metered service (using 500 kWh).
  • Usage 1 is issued for 600kWh consumption.(incorrect Usage)
  • Usage 1 is subsequently cancelled after Billing and Settlement occur.
  • Usage 2 is issued for 500 kWh (correct usage)
  • The correction (Usage –Cancel) for Usage 1 does not occur until after Billing and Settlement for that billing cycle.
1.4.6 Example 6 - Usage-Cancel Occurs After Billing (No ReBill)
  • Customer with a metered service (using 500 kWh).
  • Usage 1 is issued for 600kWh consumption (incorrect Usage)
  • Usage 1 is subsequently cancelled after Billing and Settlement occur.
  • Usage 2 is issued for 500 kWh (correct usage)
  • The correction (Usage –Cancel 1 and Usage 2) does not occur until after Billing and Settlement for that billing cycle.
  • Usage 3 (450 kWh) is issued for the current billing cycle.
RCB Testing Scenarios
Preliminary Testing: Use example 1 (2.4.1)
2.4.1Example 1- Simple Transaction Flow
  • Consider this simple Retailer-Consolidated Billing scenario for a customer with a metered service (using 500 kWh).
Round 1 & 2: Use example 5 or 6 (at the LDC’s discretion)
2.4.5 Example 5 - Usage-Cancel Occurs After ISD1 (with no current period usage)
  • Customer with a metered service (using 500 kWh).
  • Usage 1 is issued for 600kWh consumption.(incorrect Usage)
  • Usage 1 is subsequently cancelled after Billing and Settlement occurs.
  • Usage 2 is issued for 500 kWh (correct usage)
  • The correction for Usage 1 (Usage –Cancel 1) and IBR1 (IBR – Cancel 1) does not occur until after ISD1 has taken place.
2.4.5 Example 5 - Usage-Cancel Occurs After ISD1 (with current period usage)
  • Customer with a metered service (using 500 kWh).
  • Usage 1 is issued for 600kWh consumption (incorrect Usage)
  • Usage 1 is subsequently cancelled after Billing and Settlement occurs.
  • Usage 2 is issued for 500 kWh (correct usage)
  • The Usage 1 correction (Usage –Cancel 1 and Usage 2) does not occur until after ISD1 has taken place.
  • Usage 3 (450 kWh) is issued
Trading Partner pairing
  • Direct Energy, OHE, OESC, OPG and THESI have confirmed that they are willing to participate with the testing.
  • THESI says that they can test with 3-5 LDC’s
  • OHE says they can test with 3-5 LDC’s
  • Direct Energy says they can test with 3-5, maybe up to 7 LDC’s
  • Market participants need to contact each other to setup testing agreements by Wednesday April 16, 2003.
/ Mark: will provide more information on the timeline document. This should include detailed information on how Market Participants are to convert 2.1 responses to 2.2. Some documents will need to be converted.
Russ: to send updates to SPI
Hubs: 1) distribute spreadsheet to their subscribers and 2) notify of UNKNOWN static value
All: All market participants to notify Russ of their v2.2 dates ASAP.
Russ: to derive criteria for the go or no go on the conference calls
Russ: to verify how many connections they can get for the conference call
Jill Medley: to create a new GI to cover how LDC’s will adjust a correction with a CEC charged in error.
Mark: will contact retailers not present to see how many LDC’s they are able to test with
Mark: will send out an revised spread sheet to all
GI-726 to be on next week’s agenda / Anthony-OHE would like to review GI-726 before May 1st

Ontario Energy Board Electronic Business Transaction Standards Working Group- 1 of 6-

Minutes for Meeting of APR 11, 2003 – Approved (Updated Apr 22/03)

Authored by: Duane Orth-London Hydro