Pa. Working Group Seeks Extension For "System-to-System" Functionality Proposal For Utility Customer Usage Data Web Portals (Preferred Mechanism of Retail Suppliers)

The Pennsylvania Electronic Data Exchange Working Group (EDEWG) has asked the Pennsylvania PUC to extend by one month the deadline for proposing a uniform standard for the "System-to-System" functionality of utility web portals which are to provide retail electric suppliers with historical interval usage (HIU) and billing quality interval use (BQIU) data

A September 2015 PUC order requires that, within 14 months of such order, EDCs with smart meter requirements shall implement System-to-System (StS) functionality (the mechanism preferred the retail suppliers). As part of such implementation, the EDEWG's Web Portal Working Group (WPWG) was ordered to develop (but not implement) standards for a uniform StS functionality, with such proposal filed by March 3, 2016

The PUC described System-to-System (StS) functionality as initially being conceived as a platform allowing an authorized user’s information technology (IT) systems to communicate directly with the web portal system of the EDC without requiring a user to manually log into the web portal itself and leverage the user interface. For instance, this could involve the use of File Transfer Protocol, aka FTP, or web services to transmit and satisfy requests.

The workgroup requested an extension until April 8, 2016 to file their proposal due to the following circumstances:

• The scope of the Web Portal's System-to-System solution was expanded to include both the 'Rolling 10-Day' and 'Historical Usage WSDL' methods. Furthermore recent WPWG decisions increased the scope of both solutions by adding meter level information which was not part of the original Solution Framework design. These changes significantly modified the design and content of the standards documentation.

• The WPWG agreed the best approach for Web Portal standards is to split the Solution Framework into individual standards for each the Single User - Multiple Request (SU-MR), System-to-System Historical Usage (StS Historical Usage WSDL [Web Service Descriptive Language]) and System-to-System Rolling-10 Day methods. The development of three separate standards directly impacted the WPWG's ability to meet the deliverable timeline.

• The WPWG chairperson experienced a sudden unforeseen personal conflict. During the same period, the remaining EDEWG Leadership members were unavailable due to company travel and client commitments. This resulted in a 3 week delay between WPWG meetings directly impacting the deliverable timeline.

"The EDEWG regrets to ask for this extension but believes it to be necessary in order to provide clear, accurate and concise Web Portal standards for Commission consideration. EDEWG remains committed to the development and maintenance of data exchange standards for the Commonwealth's retail energy markets benefiting Pennsylvania's customers," the workgroup said

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