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Copyright © 2011 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

IT ServicesBusiness SolutionsOutsourcing

About Nokia Siemens NetworksNokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services.With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services.It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland.

For more information, visit us at www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Nokia Siemens Networks

P.O. Box 1 FI-02022 Nokia Siemens Networks Finland

Visiting address: Karaportti 3, ESPOO, Finland

Switchboard +358 71 400 4000 (Finland) Switchboard +49 89 5159 01 (Germany)

All rights reserved.

Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation, Siemens is a registered trademark of Siemens AG. The wave logo is a trademark of Nokia Siemens Networks Oy. Other company and product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks of their respective owners, and they are mentioned for identification purposes only.

Copyright © 2010 Nokia Siemens Networks.

This publication is issued to provide information only and is not to form part of any order or contract. The products and services described herein are subject to availability and change without notice.

TCS integrates Nokia Siemens Networks’unified rating and billing solution forPHEV and Smart Grid

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled infrastructure, engineering

TMand assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model , recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has a global footprint and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

Contact

To learn more about our solutions,e-mail us at or Visit us at eru.marketing@tcs.com www.tcs.com

A smart grid helps reduce carbon footprint, increase use-ability of renewable energy sources, and drive energy efficiency. However, its success is dependent on customer participation, market enablement, and the deployment of clean energy modules.Electricity, therefore, must evolve into a more retail-able commodity with more choices for customers, allowing more dynamic interaction between producers and consumers.This necessitates a shift in architecture for traditional utility billing products –the utility of the future solicits a metering billing system, which supports near real-timeand event-based billing. An advanced complex tariff and billing engine are alsoimportant to a smart grid environment.

TCS and Nokia Siemens Networks have jointly worked on a challenging PHEV/ EV use case scenario to demonstrate the billing scenario for the utility of the future.

Our proposed solution ensures the desired level of customer participation.The solution does not suggest a change in existing billing systems or meter data managements system, but augments and re-architects these systems to prepare for the utility of the future.

About the AuthorsRay, Sumit Kumar

Sumit has 16+ years of experience in projects involving IT and Automation in utilities.He is presently driving the smart metering/grid initiatives in TCS and had been instrumental in setting up the TCS smart Lab. From Centre of excellence in TCS he had supported the Smart metering projects in UK, US, Australia, and worked with a leading MDMS developer of North America. He is now working on several themes which will be the cornerstones to enable “Utility of the future".

Ray, Antara

Antara works in capacity of a solution architect in TCS. She has 10+ years of IT experience of which she spent first 5 years in implementing OSS/BSS in Telecoms Industry in India and UK. For last 5 years she is working with Utilities in the areas of Metering, Generation and Smart Grid. She is a lead architect in the Utilities Center of Excellence within TCS.

Reber, Ulrich

Ulrich is part of the global Smart Grid Solutions team of Nokia Siemens Network. He is the solution owner of Nokia Siemens Networks solution “Rating, Billing & Prepaid for Energy Companies”. Prior to his current position he held several management functions in Siemens Communications and Nokia Siemens Networks in R&D, Technical Sales, Business Development, and Innovation Management.

1

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. Business Challenge Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3. Business Challenge Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Market Model and Business Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Roaming Needs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Physical Speed of Charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Grid Stability Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4. Solution Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Market Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Tariff Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Billing Process Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Solution Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Data Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

5. Business Benefit of the Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

ContentsList of Acronyms

Abbreviation/ Acronym Expansion

AMR Automatic Meter Reading

APS Arizona Public Services

B2B Business to Business

B2C Business to Consumer

C&I Commercial & Industrial

CIS Customer Information System

CPMS Charge Point Management System

CRM Customer relationship management

DES Distributed Energy Sources

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

EV Electric Vehicle

HEV Hybrid Electric Vehicle

ICE Internal Combustion Engine

MDM Meter Data Management

NSN Nokia Siemens Networks

PHEV Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

POC Proof of Concept

POD Point of Delivery

RE Renewable Energy

ROI Return On Investment

SOA Service Oriented Architecture

TCS Tata Consultancy Services

UDR Usage Data Record

V2B Vehicle to Building

V2G Vehicle to Grid

1

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. Business Challenge Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3. Business Challenge Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Market Model and Business Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Roaming Needs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Physical Speed of Charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Grid Stability Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4. Solution Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Market Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Tariff Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Billing Process Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Solution Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Data Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

5. Business Benefit of the Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

ContentsList of Acronyms

Abbreviation/ Acronym Expansion

AMR Automatic Meter Reading

APS Arizona Public Services

B2B Business to Business

B2C Business to Consumer

C&I Commercial & Industrial

CIS Customer Information System

CPMS Charge Point Management System

CRM Customer relationship management

DES Distributed Energy Sources

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

EV Electric Vehicle

HEV Hybrid Electric Vehicle

ICE Internal Combustion Engine

MDM Meter Data Management

NSN Nokia Siemens Networks

PHEV Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

POC Proof of Concept

POD Point of Delivery

RE Renewable Energy

ROI Return On Investment

SOA Service Oriented Architecture

TCS Tata Consultancy Services

UDR Usage Data Record

V2B Vehicle to Building

V2G Vehicle to Grid

Introduction

The path to a mature smart grid is slated to witness new business models evolving over the next 10 years, across all geographies. The areas where business is expected to initially pick up and grow are energy efficiency and demand response.

Depleting fossil fuel and conventional energy sources, make it imperative to address the issue of energy supply security through efficient consumption. This solicits demand response, control, and demand management.

Moreover, global warming, due to the ever increasing green house gas emissions, demands the rollout of a sustainable transportation system and more renewable energy generation. Renewable Energy (RE) implies Distributed Energy Sources (DES) and a need for an islanded micro grid model as the starting point of the smart grid.

The energy security of supply and the eco-sustainability of industry are top priorities for any government policy maker. The utilities that provide services and the regulators who fund and control them will actually invest in smart grid initiatives when there is a certainty of ROI.

In the smart meter road show organized in November 2010, Stephen Wright, administrator and CEO of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) stated that 85 per cent of the anticipated load growth can be met with energy efficiency measures. Plug – in Hybrid Electric vehicle provides significant fuel efficiency advantage over a conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle. On a gasoline-equivalent basis (with electricity efficiency estimated ‘from the plug’) a PHEV’s charge-depleting battery system gets an average of about 105 mpg, well above even the most efficient petroleum-based ICE.

Electric vehicles figure in the smart grid not just as environment friendly cars but it is also an energy efficiency measure and an appliances for storage and load management.

With such clean energy modules, the relevance of utility in the consumers’ life is bound to increase. In such a situation, the price signal becomes a key instrument to encourage consumer participation.

Utility billing systems, therefore, need to evolve from the current state and address the dynamic and new marketing possibilities that are emerging in the electricity market.There is a need to transform the existing architecture with a separate rating/ billing engine that allows real-time and event-based billing scenarios in the smart grid market.

TCS and Nokia Siemens Networks have identified a fast growing area with far reaching implications of PHEV/ EV and analyzed the market context. The following paper addresses how PHEV tariffing, rating, and billing may be implemented.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and PHEVs stand to take a significant share in the automobile market as the biggest green initiative to cut down carbon emissions, in this decade.Also while considering ‘Vehicle-to-Grid’ (V2G) capabilities, PHEV owners may provide high-value electric system services such as regulation, spinning reserve, and peaking capability and earn substantial revenue by selling the stored energy in their vehicles.

2 3

Demand response initiatives

The introduction of PHEVs adds a completely new load in the grid, requiring distribution companies need to augment the existing network infrastructure. Demand response programs play an important role in curtailing the load as required and may be introduced to consumers with PHEV, as the PHEV load otherwise remains relatively discrete.

The ERP/ CRM and billing systems, which most utilities use as the system of records for customer data are not as equipped as contemporary telecom billing products, to offer the level of flexibility in product configuration or the agility to deliver to market.

Hence, there is a need to develop a rating/ billing solution, which adds the required agility/ configurability to the utility enterprise systems, to deliver the PHEV tariff products to the retail market and seamlessly process the charged usages for the meter-to-cash facility.Also, since the events constitute meter data in volumes, there is a need for a meter data repository.

The whitepaper intends to provide an enterprise application integration solution for supply/ distribution companies to flexibly design PHEV tariff, considering the dynamic price of electricity in the wholesale market, daily load profile, voltage and frequency conditions in the electrical grid, and location of the charging point in the distribution network.We also detail integration of the NSN unified rating and billing solution(i.e. NSN’s charge@once solution suite) with a Meter Data Management system and ERP/ billing systems within the enterprise. Further, the paper delves into the intricate details of the PHEV charging scenarios for the intended audience to appreciate the need for a full-fledged charging engine, as a precursor to billing.

It may be noted that the white paper does not attempt to describe the several eMobilty charging use cases possible and restricts to the Proof of concept. A mention of the same is in the business challenges secton to portray the holistics need.

4 5

As PHEV usage gains numbers, the electricity retail market is likely to see restructuring in the following aspects:

Consumer’s portfolio of productsCurrently, the merchant side of business has higher demand and energy requirement than the residential customer. Our analysis of several Utility portfolio reveals domestic consumption approximates to less than 50 per cent of the majority of utility portfolios.With the introduction of PHEV for individual consumers, there will be a major shift in the utility’s consumption portfolio. Domestic customers will require more than 60 per cent of the total grid usage in 15 years. As this leads to more purchasing power and bigger market share in the retail market, utilities will have to re-strategize the mass market billing capability for lucrative tariff schemes and bill promotions.

Utility’s energy procurement

The energy procurement options for a retailer increase as the V2G technologies become viable. The retailer purchasing power in the wholesalemarket sees high price volatility at times of peak demand and supply. Electricity retailers and generators who buy or sell to the wholesale market are exposed to price and volume risks. To protect themselves from volatility, they sign hedging contracts (contracts for differences with a strike price) and minimize spot price risks. The inclusion of PHEV drives an efficient channel for energy procurement and sale emerging from the retail front. The incorporation of direct load control facilities enables suppliers to manage their financial risks better. If managed improperly, they carry more exposure.

Distribution congestion and location-based pricing

The introduction and growth of PHEVs plugging to the grid can double or triple the load on the distribution system.(considering a 3.7 KW charging point per person for 8 hrs of usage daily) This leads to distribution network congestion, thereby necessitating nodal price setting to manage the congestion. Utilities then need to send price signals to maintain optimal load flow in the grid. This requires a dynamic pricing plan based on real-time load distribution patterns. Here again lies an opportunity for high revenues if the task is well-managed by the distribution company.

Demand response initiatives

The introduction of PHEVs adds a completely new load in the grid, requiring distribution companies need to augment the existing network infrastructure. Demand response programs play an important role in curtailing the load as required and may be introduced to consumers with PHEV, as the PHEV load otherwise remains relatively discrete.

The ERP/ CRM and billing systems, which most utilities use as the system of records for customer data are not as equipped as contemporary telecom billing products, to offer the level of flexibility in product configuration or the agility to deliver to market.

Hence, there is a need to develop a rating/ billing solution, which adds the required agility/ configurability to the utility enterprise systems, to deliver the PHEV tariff products to the retail market and seamlessly process the charged usages for the meter-to-cash facility.Also, since the events constitute meter data in volumes, there is a need for a meter data repository.

The whitepaper intends to provide an enterprise application integration solution for supply/ distribution companies to flexibly design PHEV tariff, considering the dynamic price of electricity in the wholesale market, daily load profile, voltage and frequency conditions in the electrical grid, and location of the charging point in the distribution network.We also detail integration of the NSN unified rating and billing solution(i.e. NSN’s charge@once solution suite) with a Meter Data Management system and ERP/ billing systems within the enterprise. Further, the paper delves into the intricate details of the PHEV charging scenarios for the intended audience to appreciate the need for a full-fledged charging engine, as a precursor to billing.

It may be noted that the white paper does not attempt to describe the several eMobilty charging use cases possible and restricts to the Proof of concept. A mention of the same is in the business challenges secton to portray the holistics need.

4 5

As PHEV usage gains numbers, the electricity retail market is likely to see restructuring in the following aspects:

Consumer’s portfolio of productsCurrently, the merchant side of business has higher demand and energy requirement than the residential customer. Our analysis of several Utility portfolio reveals domestic consumption approximates to less than 50 per cent of the majority of utility portfolios.With the introduction of PHEV for individual consumers, there will be a major shift in the utility’s consumption portfolio. Domestic customers will require more than 60 per cent of the total grid usage in 15 years. As this leads to more purchasing power and bigger market share in the retail market, utilities will have to re-strategize the mass market billing capability for lucrative tariff schemes and bill promotions.

Utility’s energy procurement

The energy procurement options for a retailer increase as the V2G technologies become viable. The retailer purchasing power in the wholesalemarket sees high price volatility at times of peak demand and supply. Electricity retailers and generators who buy or sell to the wholesale market are exposed to price and volume risks. To protect themselves from volatility, they sign hedging contracts (contracts for differences with a strike price) and minimize spot price risks. The inclusion of PHEV drives an efficient channel for energy procurement and sale emerging from the retail front. The incorporation of direct load control facilities enables suppliers to manage their financial risks better. If managed improperly, they carry more exposure.

Distribution congestion and location-based pricing

The introduction and growth of PHEVs plugging to the grid can double or triple the load on the distribution system.(considering a 3.7 KW charging point per person for 8 hrs of usage daily) This leads to distribution network congestion, thereby necessitating nodal price setting to manage the congestion. Utilities then need to send price signals to maintain optimal load flow in the grid. This requires a dynamic pricing plan based on real-time load distribution patterns. Here again lies an opportunity for high revenues if the task is well-managed by the distribution company.

Business Challenge Overview

In general, an electric supply company charges the consumers at a flat rate or at a tiered or time-of-usage-based rate, on two basic aspects — energy and demand. The prevalent pricing structure does not see much variation beyond the effect of the monthly and seasonal load profile and critical peaks, in terms of cross-chargeable quantities, event-based consumption, or location- and time-based tariff. The configuration of tariff requires code changes with the advent of new rate cases every few years. Unlike the telecom business, complex cross-selling service bundles, associated tariff products, and competitive market promotions are not prevalent in the electricity retail business.

As smart grid sets enable bidirectional energy flow, energy storage supporting load diversity requirement, clean energy modules leading to more energy consumption, renewable installations, and home energy services stand to make electricity more commodity-like and retail-able than today.

PHEV is an exciting scenario. The penetration of PHEVs are likely to increase the load on the electric power grid. The daily demand curve thus impacts the idle capacity of the grid to support PHEV charging. This presents the utilities with challenges in not only meeting the demand with supply, but also in efficiently utilizing energy by effectively shaping customer demand, achieving overall grid reliability, and hedging the risks.

As PHEVs run on ‘electric fuel’, electricity itself seeks to undergo transformation from a utility service to a commodity service, hitting the mass market like a retail commodity. More so, as commercial charging stations and gas stations sell it as any other fuel.

An instance of charging a vehicle off the grid is recorded in a meter as a consumption event, which internally sees a varying condition of the power drawn and a number of susceptible fluctuations in the grid conditions. So, like a phone call, the vehicular charging is an event, but unlike it, it is not as continuous. There are real-time dynamics between the start and stop time of its occurrence.

The state-of-the-art utility billing systems, be it SAP-ISU, Oracle Utilities CC&B, Ventyx, or the long-enduring CIS on mainframe, are not equipped to handle such a combinations of tariff, which are event-based as well as controlled by real-time market variants.

Moreover, PHEV consumers enjoy the option to charge vehicles from more than one supplier, choose the most profitable of market rates, charge at home or outside their home at the local municipal charging stations, and make payments either in prepaid or post-paid mode. This presents a multitude of market-driven situations for which prices need to be fixed, modified on real-time basis, and competed for with other suppliers.

The incumbent situation makes it apparent that PHEV charging involves complex tariff modeling, a very low time-to-market for products bundles, and a near real-time billing and credit settlement for usage. Handling these in the mainstream billing systems is complex and necessitates a dedicated system that handles the PHEV product configuration and pricing, and enables the utility billing systems to handle the multi-dimensional PHEV tariffs.

The pricing engine, once in place, is completely reusable and handles other complex product bundles like PHEV. It acts as a convergent rating platform for all kinds of new services that a utility needs to deliver in the gradually evolving market of renewable energy, cogeneration, micro grid, home energy services, and consumer demand response programs.

6 7

Business Challenge Description

The market model for PHEV charging from the grid is shaping up in various geographies.

In September 2009, the Arizona Public Services (APS) company engaged Navigant Consulting Inc. (‘Navigant’) to assess the likely adoption and impact of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and other electric vehicles, including the potential of these vehicles to provide V2G energy services. APS is developing a comprehensive strategy to effectively prepare the existing customers and service territory for the availability of electric vehicles in the years ahead.

The 21 charging stations launched by CLP Power in June 2010 in Kowloon and the new territories to offer Hong Kong’s EV drivers more choices as they opt for emission-free vehicles.

The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in Ireland is currently in the process of rolling-out a nationwide, on-street electric vehicle charging station infrastructure.

Nokia Siemens Networks has joined the Smart Wheels project consortium, working towards boosting electric mobility in Germany. The Smart Wheels project is one of the seven ‘ICT for Electric Mobility’ model projects funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The project focuses on integrating electric vehicles into smart grids and public utility infrastructure to offer new sources of energy and balance potential load fluctuations. NSN enables convenient recharging of electric vehicles at multiple locations, irrespective of the service provider.

As per the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is working to create a national clearinghouse for charging station data and services to serve consumers.

The new PHEV market enables customers to choose the supplier that offers the lowest tariff for energy, whenever there is a need for on-street charging.

PHEV’s introduction to grid charging also creates direct implications and challenges for the supply/ distribution companies and other service providers in the processes rating and billing.

The following analysis on four major horizons derives the imperatives:

Figure 1: PHEV Charging - Market Model

Power PlantElectric Supply

Company

B2B

B2C

ResidentialConsumer (LV)

CommercialCharging Station

(HV)

$

$

$ B2C

Business Challenge Overview

In general, an electric supply company charges the consumers at a flat rate or at a tiered or time-of-usage-based rate, on two basic aspects — energy and demand. The prevalent pricing structure does not see much variation beyond the effect of the monthly and seasonal load profile and critical peaks, in terms of cross-chargeable quantities, event-based consumption, or location- and time-based tariff. The configuration of tariff requires code changes with the advent of new rate cases every few years. Unlike the telecom business, complex cross-selling service bundles, associated tariff products, and competitive market promotions are not prevalent in the electricity retail business.

As smart grid sets enable bidirectional energy flow, energy storage supporting load diversity requirement, clean energy modules leading to more energy consumption, renewable installations, and home energy services stand to make electricity more commodity-like and retail-able than today.

PHEV is an exciting scenario. The penetration of PHEVs are likely to increase the load on the electric power grid. The daily demand curve thus impacts the idle capacity of the grid to support PHEV charging. This presents the utilities with challenges in not only meeting the demand with supply, but also in efficiently utilizing energy by effectively shaping customer demand, achieving overall grid reliability, and hedging the risks.

As PHEVs run on ‘electric fuel’, electricity itself seeks to undergo transformation from a utility service to a commodity service, hitting the mass market like a retail commodity. More so, as commercial charging stations and gas stations sell it as any other fuel.

An instance of charging a vehicle off the grid is recorded in a meter as a consumption event, which internally sees a varying condition of the power drawn and a number of susceptible fluctuations in the grid conditions. So, like a phone call, the vehicular charging is an event, but unlike it, it is not as continuous. There are real-time dynamics between the start and stop time of its occurrence.

The state-of-the-art utility billing systems, be it SAP-ISU, Oracle Utilities CC&B, Ventyx, or the long-enduring CIS on mainframe, are not equipped to handle such a combinations of tariff, which are event-based as well as controlled by real-time market variants.

Moreover, PHEV consumers enjoy the option to charge vehicles from more than one supplier, choose the most profitable of market rates, charge at home or outside their home at the local municipal charging stations, and make payments either in prepaid or post-paid mode. This presents a multitude of market-driven situations for which prices need to be fixed, modified on real-time basis, and competed for with other suppliers.

The incumbent situation makes it apparent that PHEV charging involves complex tariff modeling, a very low time-to-market for products bundles, and a near real-time billing and credit settlement for usage. Handling these in the mainstream billing systems is complex and necessitates a dedicated system that handles the PHEV product configuration and pricing, and enables the utility billing systems to handle the multi-dimensional PHEV tariffs.

The pricing engine, once in place, is completely reusable and handles other complex product bundles like PHEV. It acts as a convergent rating platform for all kinds of new services that a utility needs to deliver in the gradually evolving market of renewable energy, cogeneration, micro grid, home energy services, and consumer demand response programs.

6 7

Business Challenge Description

The market model for PHEV charging from the grid is shaping up in various geographies.

In September 2009, the Arizona Public Services (APS) company engaged Navigant Consulting Inc. (‘Navigant’) to assess the likely adoption and impact of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and other electric vehicles, including the potential of these vehicles to provide V2G energy services. APS is developing a comprehensive strategy to effectively prepare the existing customers and service territory for the availability of electric vehicles in the years ahead.

The 21 charging stations launched by CLP Power in June 2010 in Kowloon and the new territories to offer Hong Kong’s EV drivers more choices as they opt for emission-free vehicles.

The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in Ireland is currently in the process of rolling-out a nationwide, on-street electric vehicle charging station infrastructure.

Nokia Siemens Networks has joined the Smart Wheels project consortium, working towards boosting electric mobility in Germany. The Smart Wheels project is one of the seven ‘ICT for Electric Mobility’ model projects funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The project focuses on integrating electric vehicles into smart grids and public utility infrastructure to offer new sources of energy and balance potential load fluctuations. NSN enables convenient recharging of electric vehicles at multiple locations, irrespective of the service provider.

As per the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is working to create a national clearinghouse for charging station data and services to serve consumers.

The new PHEV market enables customers to choose the supplier that offers the lowest tariff for energy, whenever there is a need for on-street charging.

PHEV’s introduction to grid charging also creates direct implications and challenges for the supply/ distribution companies and other service providers in the processes rating and billing.

The following analysis on four major horizons derives the imperatives:

Figure 1: PHEV Charging - Market Model

Power PlantElectric Supply

Company

B2B

B2C

ResidentialConsumer (LV)

CommercialCharging Station

(HV)

$

$

$ B2C

Market Model and Business Cases

Market requirement

Between the B2C relationship of the utility and consumer, a commercial charging station is likely to emerge. Electricity as a fuel becomes commoditized. Utilities tie up with dealers who convert car charging to a retail-able service.

Structural impact

A new market model emerges where the ownership of charging stations and B2C billing methods move out from utilities control to third party vendors. The settlement of payment moves to central clearing houses as consumers may opt for refill from more than one supplier or dealer, based on price offers. The B2B power purchase agreement between utilities and commercial retailers therefore becomes competitive.

Impact to rating/ billing

Complex tariff bundling and quotations management are necessary in the B2B space. B2C also needs time for configuration and proper price setting for each period to encourage customers to charge during off-peak hours. Pricing needs to be event-based. Each charging event constitutes multiple meter reads in the frequency of 15- or 30-minute intervals as per the power cycle of the grid. Consumption and demand vary at every interval during the entire charging session.

Roaming needs

Market requirement

Consumers need to charge their vehicles not only in the local municipal area, but also while ‘on roaming’ and pay conveniently for the same. The local supply company therefore sets up charging stations at home and within the municipal town.

Structural impact

Clearing houses are set up for data exchange between suppliers. The maintenance of vehicles’ unique identity is linked to the owner’s electronic wallet and is centrally maintained for payment settlement.

Impact to rating/ billing

Consumer billing settlement may be on credit mode or on prepaid mode, based on the customer’s individual choice. The usage and payment records are entered into the system from external agencies, in mutually agreed data exchange formats.

Physical speed of charging

Market requirement

Customers may need to quickly charge from a dip discharge of the battery when traveling on road or trickle charge overnight at the home garage. The customer may be able to leave the car for two to three hours in a commercial parking space and charge the car then.

8 9

Structural impact

Standardization of charging levels of charging stations and charger sizes

The industry is currently settling on three standardized charger sizes:

n Level 1 (approximately 1.5 KW per charger)

n Level 2 (approximately 6.6 KW)

n Level 3 (up to 200 KW).

Time taken to charge

n Level 1 – 5-30 hours

n Level 2 – 1-8 hours

n Level 3 – 10-30 minutes

Places of installation:

n Level 1 – residences

n Level 2 – commercial places and offices

n Level 3 – gas stations

Impact to rating/ billing

Charging rates vary depending on the level of the charging point. Individual charging point rates also depend the customers charging behavior.

Grid stability requirements

Market requirement

PHEV has a direct imperative on the connected distribution assets in terms of thermal loading, voltage regulation, transformer’s loss of life, unbalance of phases, and harmonics of power frequency

Structural impact

During heavy loading and unstable conditions of the grid, PHEV consumers need to get price signals so that a limited number of vehicles connect for charging. As an emergency control, a direct demand response is needed to disconnect charging vehicles, if necessary.

Impact to rating/ billing

The system needs to group customers on the basis of the distribution asset to which their houses are connected to. Based on the aggregated consumption price and discounting, plans are assigned to them.

The price plan should incorporate a component that rewards/ penalizes the customer for consumption during voltage and frequency regulation. For example, if the frequency dips to less than the desired level for a sufficiently long period of time, the utility may introduce a penalty factor for charging the PHEV on the grid.

Market Model and Business Cases

Market requirement

Between the B2C relationship of the utility and consumer, a commercial charging station is likely to emerge. Electricity as a fuel becomes commoditized. Utilities tie up with dealers who convert car charging to a retail-able service.

Structural impact

A new market model emerges where the ownership of charging stations and B2C billing methods move out from utilities control to third party vendors. The settlement of payment moves to central clearing houses as consumers may opt for refill from more than one supplier or dealer, based on price offers. The B2B power purchase agreement between utilities and commercial retailers therefore becomes competitive.

Impact to rating/ billing

Complex tariff bundling and quotations management are necessary in the B2B space. B2C also needs time for configuration and proper price setting for each period to encourage customers to charge during off-peak hours. Pricing needs to be event-based. Each charging event constitutes multiple meter reads in the frequency of 15- or 30-minute intervals as per the power cycle of the grid. Consumption and demand vary at every interval during the entire charging session.

Roaming needs

Market requirement

Consumers need to charge their vehicles not only in the local municipal area, but also while ‘on roaming’ and pay conveniently for the same. The local supply company therefore sets up charging stations at home and within the municipal town.

Structural impact

Clearing houses are set up for data exchange between suppliers. The maintenance of vehicles’ unique identity is linked to the owner’s electronic wallet and is centrally maintained for payment settlement.

Impact to rating/ billing

Consumer billing settlement may be on credit mode or on prepaid mode, based on the customer’s individual choice. The usage and payment records are entered into the system from external agencies, in mutually agreed data exchange formats.

Physical speed of charging

Market requirement

Customers may need to quickly charge from a dip discharge of the battery when traveling on road or trickle charge overnight at the home garage. The customer may be able to leave the car for two to three hours in a commercial parking space and charge the car then.

8 9

Structural impact

Standardization of charging levels of charging stations and charger sizes

The industry is currently settling on three standardized charger sizes:

n Level 1 (approximately 1.5 KW per charger)

n Level 2 (approximately 6.6 KW)

n Level 3 (up to 200 KW).

Time taken to charge

n Level 1 – 5-30 hours

n Level 2 – 1-8 hours

n Level 3 – 10-30 minutes

Places of installation:

n Level 1 – residences

n Level 2 – commercial places and offices

n Level 3 – gas stations

Impact to rating/ billing

Charging rates vary depending on the level of the charging point. Individual charging point rates also depend the customers charging behavior.

Grid stability requirements

Market requirement

PHEV has a direct imperative on the connected distribution assets in terms of thermal loading, voltage regulation, transformer’s loss of life, unbalance of phases, and harmonics of power frequency

Structural impact

During heavy loading and unstable conditions of the grid, PHEV consumers need to get price signals so that a limited number of vehicles connect for charging. As an emergency control, a direct demand response is needed to disconnect charging vehicles, if necessary.

Impact to rating/ billing

The system needs to group customers on the basis of the distribution asset to which their houses are connected to. Based on the aggregated consumption price and discounting, plans are assigned to them.

The price plan should incorporate a component that rewards/ penalizes the customer for consumption during voltage and frequency regulation. For example, if the frequency dips to less than the desired level for a sufficiently long period of time, the utility may introduce a penalty factor for charging the PHEV on the grid.

Solution Description

The Proof of Concept (POC) was performed jointly by TCS and NSN integrated NSN’s unified rating and billing solution with Meter Data Management from Oracle and SAP-ISU Billing, to prove some PHEV complex tariffing, rating, and billing scenarios.

The Market Model

The market scenarios covered in the POC assumed a situation that a utility is the provider of Level 2 and Level 3 charging stations in municipal and commercial premises and gas stations in XYZ municipal town. Here, consumers can charge their vehicles at home from their residential Level 1 charging points or outside the home at public places. The utility also has battery exchange outlets for swapping used batteries for its consumers.

The operating business model uniquely identifies each PHEV vehicle user by a smart card-based mobility identifier in the system. The customer provides his mobility account identifier by swiping his card in the car’s inbuilt card reader to charge/ discharge his vehicle from a charging post. Also, the AMR meter attached to any charging point (residential or commercial) is also uniquely identifiable by a Meter Serial Number. Any charging or discharging event off the grid entails generation of usage data records in MDM against a unique combination of customer’s mobility account identifier and meter identifier. The billing system and the meter data management system will treat any charging station as a POD or Service Point and any customer (car holder) as an account belonging to a customer.

The utility will charge and bill two variations of customers:

Individual. This customer gets billed for charging the vehicle at home and in the municipal stations, as per the utility defined individual PHEV plan.

Commercial. This customer has set up charging stations for commercial usage and applies own rates for charging, to the retail consumers. The customer gets billed by the utility as per the utility defined commercial PHEV plan.

For commercial customers who own charging stations, the aggregated usages recorded in all charging point meters is billed together, and not against any one particular mobility user account.

10 11

The Tariff Design

Our utility example in the POC has designed an individual PHEV tariff plan as tabulated below:

Figure 2. Individual PHEV rate plan

The rate plan for one commercial example customer (e.g. a gas station owner) is as below. Every commercial customer may have a different tariff plan from the utility as per the C&I quotation/ offering, for being a large consumer:

Figure 3. Commercial PHEV rate plan

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Peak (9am-9pm) Off Peak(9am-9pm)

CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Home Tariff

G2V

V2G

Rating time Discount(neighborhood car-pooling promotion)

Out-of-Home Tariff

G2V

V2G

Demand Charge (>5KW)**

Penalty

Battery Exchange

* Critical Peak - CPP declared once / twice a month, as per the utilities generating condition for 1-2 hr** Power demand will be aggregaed over every 15 min inverval

If grid frequency has dropped by 0.5 Hz for more than 15 min untility pays 200% additional reward with V2G discharge energyprice and charges 300% additional penalty on top of G2V energy price

For batteries I good condition life (e.g. 97% of printed volts at full charge), utility battery outlets charge 5$ and its free of carbon tax,as the exchanged batteries are charged from renewable sources.

Not applicable 2$/kwh 1.5$/kw 3$/kw 2$/kw 1.5$/kw 3$/kw

-80 /kwh -60 /kwh -8$/kwh -1.5$/kwh -1$/kwh -8$/kwh

80 /kwh 60 /kwh 5$/kwh 1.5$/kwh 1$/kwh 5$/kwh

-40 /kwh

40 /kwh

-25 /kwh

25 /kwh

-5$/kwh

4$/kwh

Households connected to the same distributed transformer gets into a neighborhood discount plan. If there are n houses andx number of them don’t connect their vehicles to the grid for the off-eak charging, any particular night, the other remaining (n-x)houses get the discount of 100/n*x percent in their off peak rate

Not applicable Not applicable-30 /kwh

30 /kwh

-4$/kwh

3$/kwh

-15 /kwh

15 /kwh

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Peak (9am-9pm) Off Peak(9am-9pm)

CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Gas Station Tariff

G2V

V2G

Penalty

* Critical Peak - CPP declared once / twice a month, as per the utilities generating condition for 1-2 hr** Power demand will be aggregaed over every 15 min inverval, measured the aggregatd consumption of all the 6 points in the gas station

If grid frequency has dropped by 0.5 Hz for more than 15 min untility pays 200% additional reward with V2G discharge energyprice and charges 300% additional penalty on top of G2V energy price

Not applicable

Demad Charge(>100KW)** Not applicable

80 /kwh

Not applicable

60 /kwh 5$/kwh 1.5$/kwh 1$/kwh 5$/kwh

5$/kw 2.5$/kw 10$/kw 6$/kw 3$/kw 12$/kw

Solution Description

The Proof of Concept (POC) was performed jointly by TCS and NSN integrated NSN’s unified rating and billing solution with Meter Data Management from Oracle and SAP-ISU Billing, to prove some PHEV complex tariffing, rating, and billing scenarios.

The Market Model

The market scenarios covered in the POC assumed a situation that a utility is the provider of Level 2 and Level 3 charging stations in municipal and commercial premises and gas stations in XYZ municipal town. Here, consumers can charge their vehicles at home from their residential Level 1 charging points or outside the home at public places. The utility also has battery exchange outlets for swapping used batteries for its consumers.

The operating business model uniquely identifies each PHEV vehicle user by a smart card-based mobility identifier in the system. The customer provides his mobility account identifier by swiping his card in the car’s inbuilt card reader to charge/ discharge his vehicle from a charging post. Also, the AMR meter attached to any charging point (residential or commercial) is also uniquely identifiable by a Meter Serial Number. Any charging or discharging event off the grid entails generation of usage data records in MDM against a unique combination of customer’s mobility account identifier and meter identifier. The billing system and the meter data management system will treat any charging station as a POD or Service Point and any customer (car holder) as an account belonging to a customer.

The utility will charge and bill two variations of customers:

Individual. This customer gets billed for charging the vehicle at home and in the municipal stations, as per the utility defined individual PHEV plan.

Commercial. This customer has set up charging stations for commercial usage and applies own rates for charging, to the retail consumers. The customer gets billed by the utility as per the utility defined commercial PHEV plan.

For commercial customers who own charging stations, the aggregated usages recorded in all charging point meters is billed together, and not against any one particular mobility user account.

10 11

The Tariff Design

Our utility example in the POC has designed an individual PHEV tariff plan as tabulated below:

Figure 2. Individual PHEV rate plan

The rate plan for one commercial example customer (e.g. a gas station owner) is as below. Every commercial customer may have a different tariff plan from the utility as per the C&I quotation/ offering, for being a large consumer:

Figure 3. Commercial PHEV rate plan

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Peak (9am-9pm) Off Peak(9am-9pm)

CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Home Tariff

G2V

V2G

Rating time Discount(neighborhood car-pooling promotion)

Out-of-Home Tariff

G2V

V2G

Demand Charge (>5KW)**

Penalty

Battery Exchange

* Critical Peak - CPP declared once / twice a month, as per the utilities generating condition for 1-2 hr** Power demand will be aggregaed over every 15 min inverval

If grid frequency has dropped by 0.5 Hz for more than 15 min untility pays 200% additional reward with V2G discharge energyprice and charges 300% additional penalty on top of G2V energy price

For batteries I good condition life (e.g. 97% of printed volts at full charge), utility battery outlets charge 5$ and its free of carbon tax,as the exchanged batteries are charged from renewable sources.

Not applicable 2$/kwh 1.5$/kw 3$/kw 2$/kw 1.5$/kw 3$/kw

-80 /kwh -60 /kwh -8$/kwh -1.5$/kwh -1$/kwh -8$/kwh

80 /kwh 60 /kwh 5$/kwh 1.5$/kwh 1$/kwh 5$/kwh

-40 /kwh

40 /kwh

-25 /kwh

25 /kwh

-5$/kwh

4$/kwh

Households connected to the same distributed transformer gets into a neighborhood discount plan. If there are n houses andx number of them don’t connect their vehicles to the grid for the off-eak charging, any particular night, the other remaining (n-x)houses get the discount of 100/n*x percent in their off peak rate

Not applicable Not applicable-30 /kwh

30 /kwh

-4$/kwh

3$/kwh

-15 /kwh

15 /kwh

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Peak (9am-9pm) Off Peak(9am-9pm)

CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Peak Off Peak CriticalPeak*

Gas Station Tariff

G2V

V2G

Penalty

* Critical Peak - CPP declared once / twice a month, as per the utilities generating condition for 1-2 hr** Power demand will be aggregaed over every 15 min inverval, measured the aggregatd consumption of all the 6 points in the gas station

If grid frequency has dropped by 0.5 Hz for more than 15 min untility pays 200% additional reward with V2G discharge energyprice and charges 300% additional penalty on top of G2V energy price

Not applicable

Demad Charge(>100KW)** Not applicable

80 /kwh

Not applicable

60 /kwh 5$/kwh 1.5$/kwh 1$/kwh 5$/kwh

5$/kw 2.5$/kw 10$/kw 6$/kw 3$/kw 12$/kw

12 13

Figure 4. Retail consumer's billing (B2C)

The Billing Process Diagram

The two billing processes for individual and the commercial consumers are illustrated below:

Figure 5. Commercial customer's billing (B2B and B2C)

The Solution Architecture

TCS and Nokia Siemens Networks believe that there is a strong business case to propose the use of a separate rating engine that de-risks the rating and billing processes by handling the complexity of tariff outside the existing billing/ ERP systems. This significantly minimizes the effort and cost per change and reduces product creation timelines to a few days. The existing billing system only needs to keep the reference of the product and its association with the billed consumers, and generates regular invoices as per the raw bill information received from the NSN rating and billing solution.

Figure 6. The platform integration

The overall solution architecture above demonstrates how the Nokia Siemens Networks’ unified rating and billing solution (charge@once), which is a key solution in the telecom business support systems, may be positioned as the rating engine for a utility business.

As a centralized system, the Nokia Siemens Network’s solution offers state-of-the-art flexibility and configurability for various types of tariffs and payment types, i.e. both, prepaid and post-paid. With this, it offers simple flat fees over time-dependent dynamic tariffs as well as discount and incentive/ bonus programs and the whole spectrum of tariff capabilities, which also play an important role in indirect demand response. The real-time information on tariffs provided by a smart grid encourage residential users and businesses to invest in energy-efficient appliances, adjust usage patterns to avoid higher rates at peak times, and adopt other energy-saving measures. For PHEVs, the charging behavior of consumers is steered with real-time tariff information, too.

The Nokia Siemens Networks’ solution based on its market leading rating and billing platform with a flexible mediation and rating engine, is capable of providing a platform solution with the following benefits:

IdentityMgmt

SessionControl

NSN Ratingand Billing

Solution

ERP/InvoicingSystem

Load Station Meter

Invoice$

MDMID

Residential Customer Invoice

Utility

Invoice$

Commercial Customer Invoice

Utility

ERP/InvoicingSystem

NSN Ratingand Billing

SolutionMDM

MeterLoad Station

Billing

Invoice$

Customer

Operator

Gas station

Payment to utility for thegas station account

Payment based on themetered energy at the gasstation at the rates applied

by the gas station

Bill$

CRM

Unified Charging Product

ERP system

CustomerCare

CustomerSelf Care Invoicing Reprots

Business Intelligence

ERP Layer

Rating andBilling Layer

Meter DataManagement

Meters

ConnectionLayer

Meters Meters Meters

Meter Data gatheringplatform (Vendor 1)

Meter Data gatheringplatform (Vendor 2)

TariffManagement

SOA Interface Server

Billing

Rating Engine

Mediation

Event History Data Tariff DataCustomer Data

12 13

Figure 4. Retail consumer's billing (B2C)

The Billing Process Diagram

The two billing processes for individual and the commercial consumers are illustrated below:

Figure 5. Commercial customer's billing (B2B and B2C)

The Solution Architecture

TCS and Nokia Siemens Networks believe that there is a strong business case to propose the use of a separate rating engine that de-risks the rating and billing processes by handling the complexity of tariff outside the existing billing/ ERP systems. This significantly minimizes the effort and cost per change and reduces product creation timelines to a few days. The existing billing system only needs to keep the reference of the product and its association with the billed consumers, and generates regular invoices as per the raw bill information received from the NSN rating and billing solution.

Figure 6. The platform integration

The overall solution architecture above demonstrates how the Nokia Siemens Networks’ unified rating and billing solution (charge@once), which is a key solution in the telecom business support systems, may be positioned as the rating engine for a utility business.

As a centralized system, the Nokia Siemens Network’s solution offers state-of-the-art flexibility and configurability for various types of tariffs and payment types, i.e. both, prepaid and post-paid. With this, it offers simple flat fees over time-dependent dynamic tariffs as well as discount and incentive/ bonus programs and the whole spectrum of tariff capabilities, which also play an important role in indirect demand response. The real-time information on tariffs provided by a smart grid encourage residential users and businesses to invest in energy-efficient appliances, adjust usage patterns to avoid higher rates at peak times, and adopt other energy-saving measures. For PHEVs, the charging behavior of consumers is steered with real-time tariff information, too.

The Nokia Siemens Networks’ solution based on its market leading rating and billing platform with a flexible mediation and rating engine, is capable of providing a platform solution with the following benefits:

IdentityMgmt

SessionControl

NSN Ratingand Billing

Solution

ERP/InvoicingSystem

Load Station Meter

Invoice$

MDMID

Residential Customer Invoice

Utility

Invoice$

Commercial Customer Invoice

Utility

ERP/InvoicingSystem

NSN Ratingand Billing

SolutionMDM

MeterLoad Station

Billing

Invoice$

Customer

Operator

Gas station

Payment to utility for thegas station account

Payment based on themetered energy at the gasstation at the rates applied

by the gas station

Bill$

CRM

Unified Charging Product

ERP system

CustomerCare

CustomerSelf Care Invoicing Reprots

Business Intelligence

ERP Layer

Rating andBilling Layer

Meter DataManagement

Meters

ConnectionLayer

Meters Meters Meters

Meter Data gatheringplatform (Vendor 1)

Meter Data gatheringplatform (Vendor 2)

TariffManagement

SOA Interface Server

Billing

Rating Engine

Mediation

Event History Data Tariff DataCustomer Data

14 15

The Data Architecture

Usage Data Records (UDR) from meters for the entire charging duration of the vehicle help determine a unique combination of MOBILITY ACCOUNT ID and METERID.

The charging event is a time-series data for one or more intervals (minutes/ interval may be 15, 30, 60 minutes), each having its energy consumption in KWH, maximum demand in KW, recorded grid frequency in Hz, average voltages in Volts, average current in Amps .

An individual consumer is charged for the usages incurred against his MOBILITY ACCOUNT ID from any metered point of delivery. The system is aware of his home garage charging point meter and is able to identify whether he is charging from his home or out-of-home in a public charging station.

A commercial customer is charged for the usages recorded in all the meter points attached to his commercial account, irrespective of the MOBILITY ACCOUNT ID in the transactional event data.

A UDR incurred by a car once charged to a commercial user is flagged in the system, so that it is not doubly charged to the car owner’s account.

n

n

n

n

New innovative business models for energy utilities and resellers-based flexible tariffs with bonus and discount programs;

Advanced customer relations — customer life-cycle management, administration tools, and multiple communication paths through close integration with communication services;

Advanced, flexible, and scalable rating and billing platform with tariff development and product/ tariff management tools;

A robust, matured market-leading platform solution for handling high-volumetric data in real-time.

The Nokia Siemens Networks rating and billing solution helps utilities close the gap between the distributed infrastructure of smart meters, EV charging points, and meter head-ends on one side and the back-office systems on the other. These systems are not able to handle millions of rating and billing transactions in near real-time.

The Nokia Siemens Networks flexible solution allows for precise adaptation to the specific situation of each utility — be it to focus on complementing legacy rating and billing solutions for energy at a minimal initial investment or to implement future-proof, all-in-one rating and billing solutions for prepaid and post-paid customers.

In this joint TCS-NSN Proof of Concept PHEV use case, the Nokia Siemens Networks solution receives feed of the PHEV charging events from the meter data management system, which is the read data repository. This is communicated directly with the Meter Head End Systems of the different meter types deployed on-field. The meter data management system receives daily or hourly meter data dumps from all the AMR meters at the commercial/ municipal charging stations, in consumer homes and car charging points in the garages.

The charge@once rating system applies charges to each PHEV charging event according to the correct business scenario that the event fits in, within the associated tariff product. The system also generates and sends raw bill items and detail bill information to the enterprise billing for invoice creation and posting in the general ledger.

Nokia Siemens Network’s rating and billing solution is open to interface with any Meter Head End System and Meter Data Management system following a neutral multi-vendor concept. Further, the integration towards CRM and ERP systems are based on SOA-compliant web services.

Figure 7. The customer, car, meter point entity relationship

Customer(individual)

Home

Account Mobility

Account

Service Point /POD (home)

Service Point /POD (car)

Home Supply

Meter Garage

Charging Meter

Charging Station Account

POD 1 POD 2 POD 3 POD 4

Point 1Meter

Point 2Meter

Point 3Meter

Point 4Meter

Customer(Commercial)

14 15

The Data Architecture

Usage Data Records (UDR) from meters for the entire charging duration of the vehicle help determine a unique combination of MOBILITY ACCOUNT ID and METERID.

The charging event is a time-series data for one or more intervals (minutes/ interval may be 15, 30, 60 minutes), each having its energy consumption in KWH, maximum demand in KW, recorded grid frequency in Hz, average voltages in Volts, average current in Amps .

An individual consumer is charged for the usages incurred against his MOBILITY ACCOUNT ID from any metered point of delivery. The system is aware of his home garage charging point meter and is able to identify whether he is charging from his home or out-of-home in a public charging station.

A commercial customer is charged for the usages recorded in all the meter points attached to his commercial account, irrespective of the MOBILITY ACCOUNT ID in the transactional event data.

A UDR incurred by a car once charged to a commercial user is flagged in the system, so that it is not doubly charged to the car owner’s account.

n

n

n

n

New innovative business models for energy utilities and resellers-based flexible tariffs with bonus and discount programs;

Advanced customer relations — customer life-cycle management, administration tools, and multiple communication paths through close integration with communication services;

Advanced, flexible, and scalable rating and billing platform with tariff development and product/ tariff management tools;

A robust, matured market-leading platform solution for handling high-volumetric data in real-time.

The Nokia Siemens Networks rating and billing solution helps utilities close the gap between the distributed infrastructure of smart meters, EV charging points, and meter head-ends on one side and the back-office systems on the other. These systems are not able to handle millions of rating and billing transactions in near real-time.

The Nokia Siemens Networks flexible solution allows for precise adaptation to the specific situation of each utility — be it to focus on complementing legacy rating and billing solutions for energy at a minimal initial investment or to implement future-proof, all-in-one rating and billing solutions for prepaid and post-paid customers.

In this joint TCS-NSN Proof of Concept PHEV use case, the Nokia Siemens Networks solution receives feed of the PHEV charging events from the meter data management system, which is the read data repository. This is communicated directly with the Meter Head End Systems of the different meter types deployed on-field. The meter data management system receives daily or hourly meter data dumps from all the AMR meters at the commercial/ municipal charging stations, in consumer homes and car charging points in the garages.

The charge@once rating system applies charges to each PHEV charging event according to the correct business scenario that the event fits in, within the associated tariff product. The system also generates and sends raw bill items and detail bill information to the enterprise billing for invoice creation and posting in the general ledger.

Nokia Siemens Network’s rating and billing solution is open to interface with any Meter Head End System and Meter Data Management system following a neutral multi-vendor concept. Further, the integration towards CRM and ERP systems are based on SOA-compliant web services.

Figure 7. The customer, car, meter point entity relationship

Customer(individual)

Home

Account Mobility

Account

Service Point /POD (home)

Service Point /POD (car)

Home Supply

Meter Garage

Charging Meter

Charging Station Account

POD 1 POD 2 POD 3 POD 4

Point 1Meter

Point 2Meter

Point 3Meter

Point 4Meter

Customer(Commercial)

16 17

Business Benefit of the Solution

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

The solution is enterprise grade, addressing the complete enterprise landscape;

The solution is not a point solution. It is constructed in a reusable manner not just for PHEV charging services but for any smart grid value added service product;

The solution is cost-effective as the main CRM/ ERP/ billing systems remain unimpacted;

The solution severs the business’s dependencies on the ERP product roadmaps and delivery timelines;

The solution fences the whole volatile area of change from the core CRM/ ERP/ billing and makes deliveries iterative and agile;

The solution utilizes proven components. Utilities benefit from experience gained from addressing similar requirements in the telecom sector. The solution also brings in flexibility, configurability, and real time capability;

As the product is proven in the telecom sector, the PHEV service provider or utility is immediately ready to offer flexible licensing models to prove its mettle in the electricity business.

Conclusion

PHEV/ EV has been used as a proof point here. The existing utility billing solutions in the market need a significant amount of work to cater to the scenario explained above.A unified rating billing engine to integrate with the systems of record for customer account data and systems of record of meter account data are required to deliver a successful smart grid environment. Our proposed solution ensures the desired level of customer participation. The solution does not suggest a change in existing billing systems or meter data managements systems, but augments and re-architects the system to get set for the utility of the future.

16 17

Business Benefit of the Solution

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

The solution is enterprise grade, addressing the complete enterprise landscape;

The solution is not a point solution. It is constructed in a reusable manner not just for PHEV charging services but for any smart grid value added service product;

The solution is cost-effective as the main CRM/ ERP/ billing systems remain unimpacted;

The solution severs the business’s dependencies on the ERP product roadmaps and delivery timelines;

The solution fences the whole volatile area of change from the core CRM/ ERP/ billing and makes deliveries iterative and agile;

The solution utilizes proven components. Utilities benefit from experience gained from addressing similar requirements in the telecom sector. The solution also brings in flexibility, configurability, and real time capability;

As the product is proven in the telecom sector, the PHEV service provider or utility is immediately ready to offer flexible licensing models to prove its mettle in the electricity business.

Conclusion

PHEV/ EV has been used as a proof point here. The existing utility billing solutions in the market need a significant amount of work to cater to the scenario explained above.A unified rating billing engine to integrate with the systems of record for customer account data and systems of record of meter account data are required to deliver a successful smart grid environment. Our proposed solution ensures the desired level of customer participation. The solution does not suggest a change in existing billing systems or meter data managements systems, but augments and re-architects the system to get set for the utility of the future.

TCS

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ign

Serv

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Copyright © 2011 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

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About Nokia Siemens NetworksNokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services.With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services.It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland.

For more information, visit us at www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Nokia Siemens Networks

P.O. Box 1 FI-02022 Nokia Siemens Networks Finland

Visiting address: Karaportti 3, ESPOO, Finland

Switchboard +358 71 400 4000 (Finland) Switchboard +49 89 5159 01 (Germany)

All rights reserved.

Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation, Siemens is a registered trademark of Siemens AG. The wave logo is a trademark of Nokia Siemens Networks Oy. Other company and product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks of their respective owners, and they are mentioned for identification purposes only.

Copyright © 2010 Nokia Siemens Networks.

This publication is issued to provide information only and is not to form part of any order or contract. The products and services described herein are subject to availability and change without notice.

TCS integrates Nokia Siemens Networks’unified rating and billing solution forPHEV and Smart Grid

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled infrastructure, engineering

TMand assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model , recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has a global footprint and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

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