DH-310 Reporting new agreements

Reporting a new sales agreement

Information on agreements made with a customer must be reported to Datahub. The supplier always initiates the report of a new agreement to Datahub. This does not, however, prevent the DSO from agreeing on the grid agreement with the customer before the customer has made a sales agreement with a supplier. If the DSO makes a grid agreement before the new sales agreement is reported to Datahub, the DSO must wait for the new sales agreement to be reported to Datahub and only then confirm the grid agreement in Datahub in accordance with the normal process.

As Datahub provides an overview of the agreement and customer status for an accounting point, the supplier does not need to inform Datahub as to whether the matter concerns a customer’s change in address, a change of supplier or the renewal of an agreement with the current supplier. Based on the accounting point’s customer and agreement information, Datahub will decide which of the above applies and then register the new agreement accordingly.

Datahub will register the reason for making a new agreement depending on whether the customers stated in the new agreement differ from the customers stated in the valid agreements for the accounting point stored in Datahub; that is, whether the customer or customers in the new agreement have sales or grid agreements for the accounting point at the time the agreement is made. If the customers at an accounting point change entirely with regard to both sales and grid agreements, the situation usually concerns a move in or out. In these cases, it is permitted to report the agreement as quickly as on the day in question. An agreement can also be reported for the same day if the accounting point has no supplier or if the current supplier makes a change of agreement according to the table above. In all other cases, a period of 14 days shall be followed, taking the agreements’ fixed terms into account. If the supplier reports a new sales agreement for today, then the DSO is allowed to send in the confirmation of the grid agreement retrospectively to correspond the start date of the sales agreement.

The agreement may be reported to Datahub at the earliest 90 days after notification. If the supplier has agreed on a new agreement with the customer to begin later than 90 days, but notifies the agreement to Datahub within the correct time limits, the supplier must observe that the reason for the agreement start is the same agreed with the customer. If the supplier has agreed with the customer of the ‘Change of Supplier’ and the reason is returned from Datahub as a ‘Move in’, the supplier must contact the customer and confirm the situation with the customer.

The following table contains a summary of how Datahub decides the reason for which new agreements are registered. Datahub’s assignment of the aforementioned reasons is primarily used for statistical purposes.

Table: Datahub’s decision-making concerning the reasons for reported new agreements

Special cases, such as reporting changes to the estate of a deceased person, depend on how estates are dealt with in the supplier’s own processes. If an estate receives a business ID or if an agreement is transferred in the name of beneficiaries (personal identification code), the new agreement for the estate is reported to Datahub and registered as a move in. If the supplier or DSO only changes the customer’s information and the agreement continues under the personal identification code of the deceased, the change can be reported as a customer information update. If in this situation a new agreement is made, the new sales agreement is reported to Datahub, where it is registered as a change of agreement. Customers which are estates of deceased persons are separated from other customers using a customer sub-type attribute.

Before a new agreement is reported, the supplier may retrieve the accounting point information from Datahub with an authorization given by the customer. Rights to data are set out in section Parties’ rights to data. The purpose of requesting preliminary data is to help the supplier to gain an idea of the kind of accounting point agreement it is possible to make for the customer in question. The accounting point identification and customer(s) identification are entered when requesting preliminary data. In addition to the customer and accounting point data, the supplier will also receive information on the accounting point’s agreement status as follows:

• Does the customer have a valid sales agreement for the accounting point or not?

• If the customer has a sales agreement for the accounting point, information will be returned as to whether the customer or customers are exactly the same as the customers which will be party to the new agreement.

• Whether an existing sales agreement for an accounting point (if there is one) prevents a customer from making a new agreement for the accounting point when the customer remains the same and:

  • The sales agreement is fixed term. In addition, the end date for the fixed term if it is within 90 days from the moment of data retrieval.

  • The sales agreement has an exceptional termination condition.

• If the upcoming ending of an agreement has already been reported for the accounting point, this date will be returned, helping the supplier to agree on the start date of a new agreement without breaks in the supply of electricity.

• If a new agreement has already been reported as due to start at an accounting point, this date will be returned, helping the supplier to make an agreement only for the time before the previously reported agreement (see example 3).

• Does the customer have a valid grid agreement for the accounting point or not?

• If the customer has a grid agreement for the accounting point, information will be returned as to whether the customer or customers are exactly the same as the customers which will be party to the new agreement.

Out of all possible customer information, the request will only return information for the customer or customers for whom an identification was given. If an agreement has other customers, a request will only return information indicating that the agreement contains other customers, but not the actual information for these customers.

A corresponding validation will also be carried out when a supplier reports a new agreement to Datahub.

Henceforth the term ”customer” will also refer to all customers of an agreement whenever there is more than one customer. It is also worth noting that customers and changes in customers at an accounting point are identified in Datahub based on customer identification (personal identification code, business ID, party’s own identification), and not purely by name.

Making a grid agreement

Datahub will decide whether a new grid agreement is necessary based on data reported by the supplier and on the accounting point’s customer and agreement status at the given time. If the matter concerns a move in, a new grid agreement is always made. If the matter concerns a change in supplier or agreement, a new grid agreement is required in those situations wherein the valid grid agreement for an accounting point is held by a customer that differs from the customer in the upcoming sales agreement. This practice ensures that, in the future, sales and grid agreements on the accounting point are made for the same customers. Even if the customers of the agreements would match, a new grid agreement is needed if the grid agreement is ending during the new sales agreement or if the grid agreement is pending cancellation based on a sales agreement cancellation reported by a supplier. A new grid agreement is also needed if the ”delivery agreement” fields in the agreements do not match. The field in question is checked between the new and existing sales agreements or, if the previous sales agreement is no longer valid but a valid grid agreement is found, the check is done between the new sales agreement and the existing grid agreement. If a new grid agreement is not needed, Datahub will still notify the DSO about the new sales agreement. In these situations, the new supplier will get the information about the accounting point and accounting points grid product by using the accounting point and customer information request event.

If a new grid agreement is required, Datahub will create new grid agreement information based on the supplier’s notification with the status ‘unconfirmed’. Datahub will inform the DSO of the new grid agreement, which the DSO will confirm with its own notification to Datahub. The unconfirmed grid agreement gets an agreement ID created by Datahub. This agreement ID will be replaced by the DSO with the agreement ID at their own system. The distribution grid owner may already have made an agreement with the customer, whereupon the agreement information is sent at this stage as confirmation to Datahub. Information from the DSO’s confirmation is also sent to the supplier, whereupon the supplier is made aware of the necessary grid agreement information, such as product data.

The DSO will connect electricity to the accounting point as necessary on the delivery start date. The supplier does not need to send a separate connection request. Instead, the DSO connects the electricity based on the new agreement notification. The connection is notified via connection processes. If the DSO cannot connect the accounting point when the agreement begins, they report the issue to supplier outside datahub. In the agreement information forwarded to the DSO, the supplier may also provide information on whether the accounting point is interruption critical due to the special needs of the customer who signed the agreement and/or a resident living at the accounting point location. An interruption critical accounting point should not be disconnected in a normal situation, but this information is not used to guide how the DSO manages the disconnection of the accounting point, for example, in a possible power shortage situation.

It is the market parties’ responsibility to always check that the customer is of full legal capacity before making an agreement and reporting it to Datahub. Responsibility for checking always lies with the party which makes the agreement with the customer. A validation which prevents the reporting of a new agreement for an underage customer has been built into Datahub. The DSO has the right to refuse to make a grid agreement with a customer based on a notification from the supplier. In such cases, the DSO notifies Datahub that it will not confirm the grid agreement and provide a reason as to why confirmation could not be given. This information will be sent to the supplier. If the DSO does not confirm the grid agreement, then the supplier needs to cancel the sales agreement that created the grid agreement to be confirmed.

Rules

In Datahub, an agreement’s start date refers to the date from which the supplier has the right to metering data and from which the supplier is responsible for accounting point consumption or production in its own balance sheet. In practice, this date also corresponds to the date from which the supplier has the right to invoice the customer.

Reports of new sales agreements made for the same accounting point on the same or very close dates currently cause a great deal of investigative work. In Datahub, there will be clear rules concerning the terms and time periods for reporting new sales agreements for an accounting point. The rule of thumb is that there cannot simultaneously be two or more valid sales agreements for a single accounting point on the same date.  The agreements are always valid for full periods of twenty-four hours, so an agreement comes into effect at 00:00 on its start date and ends at the end of the 24-hour period.

The rules for submitting notifications for the same accounting point are as follows:

1. The start of a new sales agreement can always be reported for the current day if the accounting point has no supplier.

2. Move-in reports should always be submitted no later than on the moving day and no earlier than 90 days before the agreement starts.

3. In change of agreement situations, a new sales agreement can be reported for the current day.

4. In all other cases besides the three aforementioned the new sales agreement must be reported at least 14 days in advance and no earlier than 90 days before the agreement start date.

5. A sales agreement which is successfully reported to Datahub will automatically terminate any sales agreement that is valid on the date on which the new sales agreement comes into effect such that the existing sales agreement terminates one day prior to the entrance into force of the new agreement (this also applies to situations in which the previous customer has reported that it is moving out at a later date, whereupon the end date is modified to an earlier date).

6. A sales agreement containing a fixed term or exceptional termination condition for an accounting point will, for as long as it is valid, block the new sales agreements reported by a new supplier in which the customer or even one of the customers is the same as for the sales agreement valid for the accounting point.

   1. Exception: Consumer customer’s fixed-term sales agreement does not block a new sales agreement from a new supplier, if the fixed-term period has lasted at least 2 years.

7. A change of all customers at the accounting point (moving in) automatically cancels all new sales agreements at the same accounting point for existing customers due to begin on the same date as the change of customer or at a later date (example 4).

8. It is not possible to report two new agreements as starting on the same day, and the agreement that is reported later will be rejected (example 2). One exception is the rule 7 whereby the first new agreement made for a given day for the existing customer will be cancelled if an agreement for the accounting point is reported in which all customers change.

9. Before a previously reported new sales agreement for an accounting point comes into effect, a new sales agreement can be reported for the ”in-between” period, but in such cases the end date of the agreement must be reported and cannot be later than the start date of the previously reported agreement (example 3). Rule 7 is the exception. Datahub stores the agreement termination reason for these as ‘Termination’.

10. Agreements may only be reported retroactively in cases of error correction.

All notifications of sales agreements starting, ending or being updated which lead to overlapping sales agreements and which are not separately mentioned above shall be rejected.

A group of active customers can include both consumer customers and company customers. If this group of active customers wants to notify an agreement to the group’s small production accounting point by entering all customers of the group into the sales and grid agreement, the rules related to the agreement are treated as they would be for a consumer customer (for example, it is not possible to notify a sales agreement with special termination terms for a group of active customers).

Fixed-term sales agreements

The fixed term of a sales agreement is reported to Datahub by submitting the specific start and end dates of the agreement’s fixed term. Note that per Datahub’s data model, these differ from the agreement’s actual start and end dates. The agreement start date always represents the actual commencement date, while the agreement end date is only recorded once termination is reported to Datahub or Datahub automatically terminates the agreement.

A fixed-term agreement may be terminated prematurely when a customer relocates from the accounting point. Since Datahub processes agreements by accounting point, even if the supplier and customer agree to continue of a fixed-term agreement at the customer’s new accounting point, Datahub treats these as two separate agreements. Consequently, the first agreement can be terminated in Datahub.

In Datahub, a fixed-term agreement prevents suppliers from creating new sales agreements when any customer covered by the existing agreement for an accounting point matches parties in a proposed new agreement. However, customers may negotiate flexible changes to their agreement terms with the current supplier. For instance, customers can modify agreement parties with their existing supplier in cases such as divorce, even with a fixed-term agreement in place. Despite this flexibility, the fixed-term nature of the existing agreement prevents Datahub from accepting a new supplier’s agreement. Note that the fixed term does not restrict suppliers from terminating sales agreements through separate termination notifications.

The following table outlines time limits, fixed-term effects and reporting reasons for different agreement reporting scenarios:

Fixed-term agreement processing rules in Datahub:

1. By default, fixed-term agreements continue as valid until further notice unless their end date or renewal is specifically reported to Datahub.

2. Suppliers may report a new agreement for residential customers with fixed-term agreements that have been active for at least two years.

3. When current suppliers wish to terminate a fixed-term agreement and replace it with a new agreement involving some of the same customers, they may directly report the new sales agreement to Datahub.

4. Fixed-term agreement renewals are processed through agreement update events, where suppliers report new fixed term start and end dates that take effect on the specified update date.

Exceptional termination clauses

Suppliers may establish exceptional termination clauses for non-residential customer agreements. Per the Datahub data model, sales agreements indicate whether exceptional termination clauses apply. When a customer’s notice period differs from the standard 14 days, suppliers must report this exceptional termination clause, specifying either the notice period in days or the interval during which a new sales agreement may commence. Suppliers must update this data daily as needed.

For example, with an agreement terminable on the 5th of every month, suppliers must continually update the data to reflect the next possible date for a new sales agreement to begin. The reported date or interval must precisely indicate when a new sales agreement can begin – not when the customer has the right to terminate the agreement. When the supplier reports an interval, the first day represents when the agreement can begin, and the last day indicates when it cannot begin. In cases like monthly termination dates, suppliers may report a single date as an interval where the end date is the following day.

Exceptional termination conditions functional similarly to fixed-term sales agreements for the accounting point. Under these conditions, new suppliers receive advance notice of the earliest possible agreement start date, even when if more than 90 days away. However, agreement reporting remains restricted to no earlier than 90 days in advance, regardless of exceptional termination conditions.