Annual Quantity Manager

Summary
Key Features
Key Business Benefits
System Overview
AQR Industry Timeline
Flows Processed

Accurate and timely calculation of gas consumption is essential for any gas shipper in order to effectively manage critical transportation costs. Failure to pro-actively manage the Annual Quantity Review (AQR) process can significantly impact shipper profitability.

B-Smart™ AQ Review Manager provides the gas shipper with a complete managed end-to-end AQR solution. Based on configurable tolerance limits the application automatically challenges National Grid Transco (NGT) AQ or Winter Consumption (WC) notifications where the shipper’s own data indicates that the NGT value is inappropriate.

Generis’ own experience has shown that shippers can achieve substantial reductions in gas transportation charges by participating in the industry AQ Review process.

Central to the B-Smart™ AQ Review Manager is the integrated Consumption Estimation module. This module calculates AQ or WC values efficiently using standard industry standing data. Consumption data is sourced from either B-Smart™ Meter Asset Manager and Meter Reading Manager applications or any third party systems. Automatic tolerance comparisons between estimated consumptions and NGT notified values determines whether there are justifiable grounds to enter into an amendment or appeals process, eliminating user decision points and providing coverage of the entire meter point portfolio.

Tolerance checking is geared by meter consumption thresholds and may be driven by absolute or percentage differences in consumption values. This gives the shipper full flexibility to tailor the review process to any part of the portfolio and simultaneously satisfies industry compliance by ensuring that the shipper presents amendments in a balanced manner.

B-Smart™ AQ Review Manager is built on the market leading⁽¹⁾ B-Smart™ Flow Manager and B-Smart™ Event Manager technologies. The application can be implemented as a stand-alone solution or as part of a fully integrated B-Smart™ Dual Fuel supplier solution covering the management of Dataflow, Meter Assets, Supply Point Administration, Jobs and Third Party Contracts.

(1) B-Smart software manages an estimated 85% of the supplier gas meter asset data in the UK market place.

Summary

Management of the Annual Quantity (AQ) Review process including both Amendment & Appeal phases
Rapid business impact through immediate cost reductions
Retained knowledge base with the system maximises annual improvements and subsequent cost savings
Caters for Domestic and I&C Meter Points
In the process of being implemented within the UK utility sector
Pre-configured to process all UK-Link flows involved in the process
Can be deployed as a stand-alone application or seamlessly integrated with B-Smart™ Meter Asset Manager (MAM), B-Smart™ Supply Point Administration (SPA) and B-Smart™ Meter Reading Manager (MRM) to give a complete gas portfolio management solution
Built upon proven B-Smart™ Flow Engine & Event Management platform

Key Features

Manage large-scale operations by utilising the market established B-Smart™ Flow Manager transaction engine
Supports all AQ Amendment and Appeal activities between the shipper and National Grid Transco (NGT); Amendments, Appeals, Speculative Calculations, AQ and Winter Consumptions (WC)
Highly configurable consumption tolerances based on percentage and/or absolute consumption differences
In-built consumption estimation based on latest meter and reading details using the NGT algorithm
Automatic tracking of missing flows
Supports multiple in-house shippers within one instance of the application
Automatic triggering of re-nomination on successful appeal
Automatic adherence to the NGT AQ review timetable

Key Business Benefits

Rapid business impact through immediate cost reductions
Single system provides processing of a shipper’s total Domestic I&C Meter Portfolio including multiple in-house shippers
Allows the business to automate and proactively manage the complete AQ Review process
Allows full or selective portfolio processing of all AQ Review Amendment and Appeal activities between shipper and NGT
Provides a consistent and accurate approach to AQ Review, minimising manual intervention and associated costs
Configurability provides a flexible approach that delivers year on year business improvement
Retained knowledge base with the system maximises annual improvements and subsequent cost savings
Provides 14 pre-configured and Generis maintained industry flows with supporting business processes. This further reduces the cost of ownership

System Overview

AQR Industry

Appeal Process Summary

Process undertaken if shipper feels that the AQ/WC values issued by NGT are inappropriate given data that the shipper may possess
Initiated by receipt of the AQ/WC Notification flow (NRL)
This in turn initiates AQ Review business process and applies tolerance checks against the calculated AC or WC value and the supplied by NGT
Automatically requests an Appeal as appropriate
Triggers an automatic re-nomination request for accepted Appeals
Processing is configurable upon receipt of an Amendment Rejection; cancel business process or hold for manual intervention

Tolerance Checking Summary

Operates at Meter Point level
Highly configurable rules defined by the following:
Context
Sequence
Shipper
Current and Revised supply point class
Consumption amount lower and upper range limits
Percentage or absolute difference between two values
Can automatically cancel an AQ Review or hold it for user review

Amendment Process Summary

Shipper challenging the data that NGT used to calculate the AQ/WC values
Initiated by receipt of AQ Notification flows (NRQ, NRS, NRM) from NGT
This in turn initiates AQ Review business process and applies tolerance checks against the calculated AC or WC value and the supplied by NGT
Subsequently Performs an estimate before requesting Speculative Calculation
Automatically requests an Amendment as appropriate based on configurable parameters
Processing is configurable upon receipt of an Amendment Rejection; cancel business process or hold for manual intervention Initiates separate AQ and WC Amendment business processes as appropriate