"The new solution delivers sufficient performance even with significantly larger volumes of processed OOM type A data. At the same time, it provides a clear overview of the processing status, the ability to compare results with the market operator, and customizable reporting".
About company
Západoslovenská distribučná, a.s. (ZSD) is the largest electricity distribution company in Slovakia, operating under regulatory rules in accordance with applicable legislation. ZSD’s distribution area covers the Bratislava, Trnava, and Nitra regions, as well as part of the Trenčín region.
At the end of 2021, the total volume of distributed electricity reached 9,891 GWh. The number of serviced metering points amounted to 1,195,500 (source: ZSD Annual Report 2021). Since July 1, 2007, ZSD has been providing electricity distribution services as an independent legal entity in compliance with the requirements of European legislation and market liberalization.
As a 100% subsidiary of Západoslovenská energetika, a.s., the company is part of the German energy group E.ON.
Background
Data communication is a key IT and business process of ZSD, both within internal data flows and in external data exchange with energy market participants. At the level of the enterprise system, ZSDIS implemented internal data communication within the SAP IS-U system, which was primarily designed for settlement, billing and balancing of electricity supply and consumption, for the registration of metering devices, and for communication on the energy market.
In connection with the increasing volume of metered data associated with the implementation of intelligent metering systems (IMS), the SAP IS-U system did not have sufficient performance capacity, which led to the requirement to create a new balancing system for the purposes of the day-ahead electricity market.
Objectives
The objective of implementing the new balancing system at ZSD was to ensure:
- compliance with legislative obligations in accordance with Decree No. 358/2013 Coll. regarding the deployment of IMS (electricity meters) in the scope of approximately 250,000 metering points by the end of 2021,
- offloading the SAP IS-U system from balancing processes and data exchange on the energy market,
- redesign and consolidation of business and IT processes related to metering and reading of electricity supply and consumption.
As a result of changes in metered data flows, the following was also expected:
- termination of the role of the Centralized Data Hub for the SAP system, as this role is not native to the balancing system,
- transfer of data distribution and system integration to a new integration platform,
- creation of a central repository of metered data, transfer of final data sources for balancing and billing processes to meter data management systems, and execution of balancing processes in a separate system outside the SAP environment.
Solution
The commissioning of the XMtrade®/BIS product into production on 20 September 2021 enabled:
- simple system scalability depending on the level of IMS penetration,
- more efficient data communication between internal company systems and improved external communication with energy market participants,
- operation of the balancing system with several times higher performance capacity compared to the original system,
- improved supervision, monitoring and reporting of business and IT balancing processes,
- increased reliability in meeting legislative requirements related to balancing and data exchange,
- extension of user functionalities without impacting overall system performance.
Technologies
- application layer – Microsoft .NET
- database layer – Oracle
- presentation layer – web browser (Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera)
- automated external interfaces (SOAP web service, REST web service, AMQP)
Services
The delivery of the XMtrade®/BIS system also included services related to the gradual transition of functionalities from the existing IT environment to the new environment, which involved migration of the original solution and data from the SAP IS-U environment to the XMtrade®/BIS environment.
ZSD has secured, for a period of 4 years from the commissioning of the new balancing system into production, the provision of services in the form of a direct telephone connection (hotline), technical support, as well as system maintenance and development.