Utility Consolidated - Rate Ready Model

Learn about the Rate Ready model flow.

In the Rate Ready Model, the Supplier provides its charges to the Utility. See out bound 810 in Transactions.

The Utility then calculates the consumption charge and adds the Supplier charges to the invoice.

The Utility then collect the payment from the Customer for all the charges and sends the payment back to the Supplier along with a notification of such payment.

In this model, on receiving the meter reading, CIS sends the rate code or rate amount information to the Utility for billing purposes. Some also provide and import the rate information into CIS and lets CIS submit the rate (code or amount) and Customer information to the Utility upon approval. CIS has a tool called Rate Submission Tool to achieve this function.

Rate Ready model has two sub models:
  • Rate Code Based - In the Rate Code Based model, both CIS and the Utility keep a Rate Code Lookup table. When CIS receives a meter read from the Utility, it performs certain calculation and submits the proper rate code to the Utility.
  • Rate Amount Based - In the Rate Amount Based model, CIS keeps a Rate Code/Amount Lookup Table. When CIS receives a meter read from the Utility, it performs certain logical operations and submits the proper rate amount to the Utility.

POR and Non-POR Payment

Delinquent payments, and write-offs could increase utilities’ financial risk, decrease working capital, and degrade Customer services. In some cases within the Bill Ready and Rate Ready models, the Utility only sends payment to the energy retailer/ Supplier when it receives payment from the end Customer (“Pay as you go”). In other cases, the Utility offers a “Purchases of Receivables” (P.O.R.) program where it should guarantee payment of an agreed upon percentage (up to 97%) of the outstanding receivables for the energy retailer/ Supplier’s charge.

Shadow Invoicing

In the Rate Ready model, upon receiving the Customer invoice and meter read information, CIS performs its own calculation of the invoice based on the meter read and rate information. This is called Shadow Invoice. If the invoice that CIS calculated and the invoice sent by Utility is different, CIS adjusts its own calculation and store the utility invoice into the database. This could happen if wrong rate is used for the calculations. A note is added as invoice discrepancy detail line for reporting purpose.