Key Terms and Acronyms

Technically: A series of accounting transactions that record the debits/credits for the services associated with a Customer Account.

Financially: Money owed to the business by its clients and/or Customers.

Automated Clearing House (ACH) is an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. ACH processes large volumes of credit and debit transactions in batches. ACH credit transfers include direct deposit payroll and vendor payments.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Clearing_House.)

The third of four possible levels of communication issued by ERCOT in anticipation of a possible emergency condition.

For alerts in CIS, see Customer Alerts and Workspace Alerts.

Business to Business. A "computer to computer" connection established so that data and other information can be exchanged between two companies.

The CIS client B2B site is a Web Portal created to view CIS information. The main B2B/ B2B2 end users are commercial Customers of the Retail Energy Providers (or CIS Clients). B2B2 is a more current UI for the same or similar functionality as the B2B site.

A Bill group is a number which typically describes a collection of accounts. Bill Groups can be grouped together by any criteria the user would prefer.

Certain clients use the Bill Group number to correspond the date of the month the Bill Group should be invoiced on. Some create a Bill Group to only be invoiced when all consumption records arrive. There are many ways to group accounts together, and then these groups of accounts are put into a distinct Bill Group.

A Customer is assigned to a Bill Group when the account is enrolled in CIS. Historically, Customers were initially enrolled with Bill Group 55 and then moved to the final Bill Group after the first invoice. For newer client implementations, Customers are typically assigned to a Bill Group per Billing Type per LDC, with the following rules applicable to the Bill Group number:

Bill Groups are 6 numbers in length. The first number is for the Bill Type, next 3 numbers for LDCID in the Database, last 2 numbers for Normal BG description purposes.

For example CPL would be 305800:

• 3 = Rate Ready
• 058 = LDCID in the Database
• 00 = Normal

The Customer's Bill Group number is listed in the Customer table in the BillCycle column.

One of the energy Billing Models supported by CIS.

When we talk about "Bill Ready" at CIS we always mean the Utility Consolidated Bill Ready model. In this model, the Distribution utility transmits the Meter read to the energy Retailer/Supplier to calculate their energy charges. The Supplier sends back an electronic invoice within a fixed number of days. The distribution utility passes through the Supplier's charges on the invoice sent to the end Customer.

CIS database used for all Clients, containing mostly configuration data.

A budget billing plan allows Customers to pay an equal amount each month (regardless of Usage). This avoids high winter bills and low summer bills.

Each month the Customer is billed their actual charges based upon the monthly usage (867) received from the Market. While the actual charges are billed to the Customer's Account, the amount invoiced is the Budgeted Amount. The Customer's invoice shows the normal usage and charges incurred, but the amount due equals the Budget Billing Amount. Each month the Budget Balance goes up or down depending upon the difference between actual charges and the budget amount billed.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In addition, the CPUC regulates common carriers, including household goods movers, passenger transportation companies (like limousine services) and rail crossing safety.

Credit Card and ACH Secure Handling. CIS module to collect, store and process credit card and ACH payment information.

See PCI-DSS Compliance and CIS Solution - CASH.

Chase PaymenTech is a Payment Provider used by some CIS Clients.

CIS's business Customers are referred to as "Supplier" (Retailers/ Suppliers/ Marketers) that are buying CIS's product.

CIS operational database for Supplier.

Commonwealth Edison, also called ComEd is a Utility in Illinois.

Consolidated Edison.

Consolidated Edison, also called Con Edison, ConEd or Con Ed, is a Utility in New York.

Agreement between the Supplier and the Customer to provide services at a price over time.

Alternate definition: Representation of the specific Product/services selected by the Customer for a given period of time.

CIS's unique number for the Customer; also called ESP Account Number.

In the Client Database, it is stored in the CustNo field.

CIS supports Alert messages that can be configured to appear on the CSR UI portal as messages on the Customer Information screen.

In the energy business, the term refers to Low Voltage lines.

Divisions can be used by clients in CIS to group Customers together. The Division Code is the identification of the Division to which the Customer belongs to.

Divisions are used to filter on some reports, to group Customers for different letters and invoices, and as Event parameters.

On Reports, a Division is usually called "Brand."

One of the energy Billing Models supported by CIS.

In the Dual model, both the Distribution Utility and the energy Retailer/Supplier each calculate their own charges and both parties send invoices directly the end Customer. The Customer therefore receives two invoices per Meter read and remits payments back directly to both parties. Typically, the distribution company provides the Supplier with a monthly meter electronically, but does not expect any responses related to billing.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means, which is used to transfer electronic documents or business data from one computer system to another computer system, i.e. from one trading partner to another trading partner without human intervention.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_data_interchange.)

CIS uses EDI to communicate with the energy Market. See also Market Transactions.

A Customer enrollment is typically a transaction sent to a Utility to activate different types of utilities like Electric, Gas, or Water. It is usually sent in the form of an 814 Move-In or Switch transaction. The Enrollment can be sent requesting the activation date on or off cycle.

Some Clients also place enrollments manually on the CSR UI, or send a batch file to CIS.

Electric Service Identifier. The basic identifier assigned to each Service Delivery Point used in the registration and settlement systems managed by ERCOT or another Independent Organization.

ESIID is a term used in Texas. For other states, it is called LDC Account Number or Premise Number.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host or to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ftp.)

Invoice – An invoice or bill is a commercial document issued by a seller to the buyer, indicating the products, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller has provided the buyer.

(See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invoice.)

CIS's Client Database field "InvoiceID" is CIS's internal identifier for the Customer's invoice.

The number is different from the Invoice Number, which is the Utility's identifier for the invoice.

CIS's Client Database field "InvoiceNbr" is the Utility's identifier for the Customer's invoice, sent to CIS via EDItransaction.

The number is different from the Invoice ID, which is the CIS internal identifier for the invoice.

Customer Infromation and Billing system. The CIS platform is the system that CIS North America uses to bill Customers for their Consumption of utility services.

Hosted EDI and On-Demand Information Exchange.CIS|xchange provides CIS's connection with trading partners.

Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF tones input via keypad.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivr)

Local Distribution Company - the company that delivers electricity to a Customer's home or business along the poles and wires. Also called Service Provider.

In Texas, a service provider is called a TDSP.

The LDC's identification of a Customer Account. Also called Premise Number. In Texas it is called ESIID.

LMP (Location Marginal Pricing) is an hourly index price provided by PJM that is broken down per Zone, Aggregate Zone, and Node.

LMP allows CIS to bill ComEd Customers at an hourly index. This is similar to the MCPE price in the ERCOT market. In ComEd, interval data is provided in 30 minutes intervals, however, for non-interval meters, CIS must "backcast" the Customers' usage against a profile to determine the hourly usage (aka "shaping" the usage).

Used to convert the monthly Consumption data into estimates of hourly or sub-hourly consumption in order to lookup the MCPE price. ERCOT provides the Customer's Load Profile as well as the Load Profile prices.

Lockbox is a common name for bank operations where large volumes of Customer payments made by check sent via mail are received, processed and deposited into a Client’s bank account. Clients who collect Customer payments via a bank lockbox receives a daily file from the bank containing the deposit details. This file allows CIS to post the payments directly to the Customer’s account.

A market brief is an CIS document that serves as a reference guide for specific market nuances for the implementation of interfaces with a Utility.

CIS database containing EDI transactions sent in behalf of CIS's Clients.

A Master Customer Account is a "place holder" that allows creating an organizational Customer Hierarchy. The Master Customer itself has no physical meaning. Master Customers have no Meters, Consumption, or service addresses. Master Customers are only a way to group multiple Customers.

There is potentially no limitation to the number of levels that can be created within the hierarchical structure. Master Customers can be assigned to other Master Customers. The only requirement is that the lowest level of any branch needs to end with a "Customer Account" so that a physical location with actual consumption (metered, un-metered, "services," or "products") can be invoiced. The Master Customer, however, would be able to track at an aggregate level the sum of any of these items for the "Customers" under that master.

Market Clearing Price for Energy.

According to the ERCOT website, MCPE is defined as the highest price associated with a Congestion Zone for a Settlement Interval for Balancing Energy deployed during the Settlement Interval. The MCPE price for energy is a variable rate that changes every 15 minutes and is available from the ERCOT website.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a nonprofit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia. NERC oversees eight regional reliability entities and encompasses all of the interconnected power systems of the contiguous United States, Canada and a portion of Baja California in Mexico.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Electric_Reliability_Corporation.)

The North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) serves as an industry forum for the development and promotion of standards for wholesale and retail natural gas and electricity.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) denotes the debit, credit, prepaid, e-purse, ATM, and POS cards and associated businesses.

The term is sometimes more specifically used to refer to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, a council originally formed with the goal of managing the ongoing evolution of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The council itself claims to be independent of the various card vendors that make up the council.

The PCI Council formed a body of security standards known as the PCI Data Security Standards, (PCI DSS), and these standards consist of 12 significant requirements including multiple sub-requirements which contain numerous directives against which businesses may measure their own payment card security policies, procedures and guidelines. By complying with qualified assessments of these standards, businesses can become accepted by the PCI Standards Council as compliant with the 12 requirements, and thus receive a compliance certification and a listing on the PCI Standards Council website.

PJM Interconnection LLC (PJM) is an RTO which is part of the Eastern Interconnection grid operating an electric transmission system.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PJM_Interconnection.

Public Utility Commission of Texas - the state agency that regulates electric and telecommunications service. Under Electric Choice, the PUCT regulates the delivery of electricity and enforce Customer protections.

Website: www.puc.texas.gov

Purchase of Receivables - under the Utility Consolidated Billing Model, the Utility issues a single bill to the end user that contains the utility's delivery charges and the Suppliers' charges. When the Customer pays the utility for the bill, the utility then pays the Supplier. This is known as "Pay as you go" or "Pay as you get paid."

When a Customer fails to pay, the Supplier cannot disconnect the Customer's service. Eventually the Supplier returns the Customer to the distribution utility, the Customer continues to receive service, and the Supplier may have to initiate costly litigation to recover its uncollected receivables (i.e. invoices).

A Purchase of Receivables ("POR") program involves the utility purchasing the receivables of a Supplier at a discount rate equal to the utility's actual uncollectible rate. This discount rate is then offset from the monthly payments the utility makes to the Supplier and is subject to a periodic reconciliation process. In this model, the Supplier receives payment regardless if the Customer pays their bill. If a Customer does not pay their bills and continues to not pay their bill, the utility may change the billing type to Dual model in order to share the costs/risks with the Supplier. Other utilities may simply send a Drop Transaction to the Supplier for the Customer and the Customer goes back to the utility.

One of the energy Billing Models supported byCIS.

When we talk about "Rate Ready" at CIS we always mean the Utility Consolidated Rate Ready model. In this model, the Distribution utility calculates charges on behalf of an energy Retailer/Supplier at a rate the Supplier previously communicates to the utility. The utility then sends an invoice to the Customer for all charges.

Refers to the pricing of a commodity that depends on the time the service is provided or delivered. Real-time pricing includes fixed time-of-use rates for electricity and public transport(supply chagres) with dynamic pricing (variable) reflecting the current supply-demand situation.

Shut Off for Non-Payment transaction. When a Customer fails to meet their payment obligations with a Supplier they can be disconnected for non-payment. In this case the Supplier sends an SONP transaction to the Utility (for example, AGLC). The utility then disconnects the service.

PAID (i.e. Collection Release) transaction.

An energy reseller that sells a utility Commodity to actual consumers.

Also called Retailer or Marketer.

One of the energy Billing Models supported by CIS. See Supplier Consolidated Model.

Transmission and Distribution Service Provider. The company that delivers electricity to a Customer's home or business along the poles and wires.

TDSP is a Texas-only term. In other states, it is called an LDC.

Fees charged by the TDSP to a Customers, and imported via the 810 transaction to CIS.

Also called Base Charges, 810 Charges or Ancillary Charges.

The TDSP Template is a template with mapped 810/ancillary/TDSP Charges assigned to it. The ancillary charges are mapped by either passing through to the end client or they are not charged to the end client. When the charge codes are not passed through, the typical practice is to roll the 810 charges into the client Rate $/Units.

Transmission and Distribution Utility. The TDU owns the poles, wires, and meters and delivers electricity to homes.

Commonly called TDSP.

In the energy business, the term refers to High Voltage lines.

Value-added Network (VAN) is a hosted service offering that acts as an intermediary between business partners sharing standards based or proprietary data via shared Business Processes. The offered service is referred to as "Value-added Network Service".

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_network.)