DH-710 Product information update
Product information
Datahub enables the maintenance and transfer of product information. In order for suppliers to be able to make an electricity sales agreement using a product that corresponds to the accounting point’s grid service product, the DSOs must maintain information on their own transmission products according to the structure below. Suppliers also need grid service product information for electricity delivery agreement billing.
Suppliers can maintain sales product information in accordance with their own needs and agreements signed with other market parties. The sales product is not forwarded to the DSO or third parties without a separate party authorization from the supplier.
Product and price information must be reported and it can be retrieved via an automated interface in accordance with DH-700 events. Only the product identification is needed when retrieving accounting point information and in agreement processes, in which case the above-mentioned interface must be used to determine the product structure. If necessary, several products can be reported for an agreement. Grid service product prices are public and thus must be reported to Datahub in order to be available to all parties. Sales product prices in Datahub are available only to parties authorized by the supplier. A customer cannot provide a third party with an authorization for price information.
In the structure above, the product can be, for example, ‘Timed transmission’, which has two product components: ‘Day transmission’ and ‘Night transmission’. A calendar time series is a time series in which the time step value can be 0 or 1. When the value is 1, the product component in question is applied for the time step in question. A calendar time series must be compiled separately for each year, because a calendar can vary according to public holidays falling on weekdays and occurring differently each year. The calendar time series must also take changes between daylight savings and standard time into consideration, as well as the extra day in leap years. The calendar time series must be reported by the end of September at the latest. A price time series indicates the price for each time step.
Creating a product
When reporting a new product to Datahub, the reporting party sends in all required information on the product structure. After the product is reported, the structure of the product cannot be changed. The structural data is reported with one message and in this message the market party reports what kind of price information the product has and whether it is a price or price time series. The reported product, that has the price information type BG01=Price, will be completed once the party has submitted the price information for the product with a separate price notification message. The product cannot be used until the price information is provided, and no retroactive price notifications to products are allowed. If a product price is time series based, then the price time series can be reported retroactively and the product can be used even though the price information is not submitted immediately after the product is created. A price time series can be reported for a maximum of one year retroactively.
A product can also include a calendar time series. It defines the moments in time when a certain product component (such as day-rate or night-rate electricity) is in effect. Calendar time series are reported with the same message used for the price time series.
Datahub products are created by combining different product components to form a complete product. Each product has its own instance of a product component, even if the same component is used in another product. This allows the reporting market party to use different prices for the component by products.
The Datahub data model supports storing product names and product component names in three different languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. The product code must be unique, as well as the combination of product code and product component code. If a product is cancelled, the product code cannot be used again.
Updating a product’s structural data
The market parties can update their own valid products. The structural data of a product consists of the product and product component data. Product structural data that can be updated by a market party consists of product name, product component name and tax rate. A market party can also set the end date for a product. When an end date is reported, the product remains in Datahub as terminated and changes can no longer be made to it.
The market parties cannot change the product structure once it has been reported, e.g., by adding a new component or removing existing ones. If this kind of change is needed, it is handled by reporting a new product and ending the existing one.
Updating prices or price time series
When market parties need to change the prices of their products, they do this with separate messages.
A market party must report a new price to Datahub at least one month before the product price becomes effective. A new price notification always terminates the previous valid price on the day before the new price takes effect. If there is a need to update a price retroactively, for example, due to an error, the party informs the operator, who then makes the necessary update. A party can only change prices that have been reported for the future. This is done by replacing the old price with a new one.
Prices reported to Datahub are reported both with and without value added tax (VAT). This makes it easier for the party who needs these prices to handle billing correctly, as additional tax calculations may cause differences in decimals and affect the end customer billing.
There are also products where charges are based on different conditions and calculation formulas, using more than one billing basis rather than just the actual electricity consumption for a specific hour. Examples include power-based products, where charges are determined by one or more of the highest measured power values within a given time period. For these products prices are reported to Datahub as unit price information.