DH-340 Agreement cancellations and error corrections

Agreements are cancelled for the purpose of correcting erroneous agreements and when the customer exercises their statutory cancellation right in home and distance sales. The general principle of cancellation is that the agreement is cancelled from the start date of the agreement. However, depending on the reason for the cancellation, there are some exceptions which are described in the examples section. In addition to the cancellation of agreements, it is possible to correct erroneous data arising solely from parties’ mistakes by reporting the start or end of agreements retroactively. Retroactively means that the start date of a reported agreement or the date on which a terminated agreement ended falls on any day preceding the date on which the notification was made. In general, retroactive change refers to a change which changes any validity of a sales agreement in the past.

For retroactive changes, it is essential that both the validity of imbalance settlement (balance information) and the validity of the sales agreement (agreement information) are separately maintained by accounting point in Datahub. Balance information indicates the supplier on whose balance sheet the accounting point’s consumption or production is calculated in Datahub’s imbalance settlement calculations. Changes outside of the balance window that are included in balance information will be accounted for in balance error correction. Agreement information indicates which supplier has the right to accounting point data in Datahub (including metering data). Agreement information corresponds to the period during which the supplier has the right to invoice the customer. In normal situations, balance information corresponds to agreement information. Discrepancies between the balance information and agreement information may occur when corrections are made retroactively.

Sales agreement cancellation

Sales agreements are cancelled when a customer cancels an agreement by exercising its statutory cancellation right or in error situations wherein a sales agreement or possibly grid agreement is set up for an incorrect accounting point or otherwise erroneously. The agreement may be cancelled before it starts or retroactively after it starts. The cancellation process for these two events is processed in Datahub in different ways.

The supplier must report the cancellation of the agreement to Datahub. In most situations when the sales agreement to be cancelled is originally reported, it terminates the preceding supplier’s sales agreement at the accounting point, in which case the preceding agreement will be restored upon the cancellation. Agreements that have been terminated by a separate event (supplier’s own notification or bulk termination of agreements by the operator) are not restored. If the agreement is cancelled due to a supplier related reason, the previous agreement is not restored.

The industry convention is that the previous supplier should take the customer back unless the matter concerns a customer’s fixed-term agreement that has already ended. If the previous supplier does not want to take the customer back, it can refuse the sales agreement restoration (event DH-343). Refusal of sales agreement restoration corresponds with an agreement ending and is always reported with termination as the reason for an agreement ending. If the supplier of the previous agreement wants to end its agreement after a cancellation with some other reason code, termination is reported using the regular agreement termination event DH-331. There is not always a preceding supplier at move-in sites; therefore the agreement cannot be restored in these situations.

When the sales agreement (move-in) to be cancelled was originally reported to Datahub, it might have cancelled future sales agreements and authorizations, which are restored when the the move-in is cancelled. Agreements and authorizations are not restored if the agreement was cancelled for a reason arising from the supplier, reason code ‘due to a supplier related reason’.

If the supplier/authorized party of the previous/future agreement is no longer an active market party in Datahub when cancelling the current sales agreement, the previous/future sales agreement/authorization will not be restored. If the accounting point is left without an agreement, the DSO is notified.

Agreements imported in the Datahub data migration cannot be cancelled by normal cancellation processes. In the data migration, the data migrated to Datahub was a snapshot of the parties’ systems at a certain point in time and the agreement history of the accounting point was not migrated. Therefore, Datahub has no knowledge of the status of previous agreements and cannot restore previous agreements. If a migrated agreement must be cancelled, the market party informs the Datahub operator, and the operator will then perform the cancellation on behalf of the market party.

In the cancellation notification, the supplier must provide information as to whether the agreement was cancelled by the customer or the supplier.

A customer’s cancellation may be, for example, based on the customer’s right of withdrawal or on incorrect information provided by the customer. In retroactive cancellations made after the agreement has started, the supplier retains the right to billing/agreement data from the start of the agreement for the period in which the balance settlement window has closed. In these cases, the previous supplier’s contract cannot automatically be restored in Datahub, as despite the cancellation, the cancelled contract remains valid for a certain period. In such cases, Datahub informs the previous supplier of the date from which they can retroactively report a new agreement in Datahub, if it wishes to regain the customer.

Supplier cancellations are due to various error situations caused by the supplier. In these cases, Datahub forwards information about the cancellation of the sales agreement to the (potential) previous supplier for the accounting point, and the earlier sales agreement is automatically restored. If there is no previous supplier, the accounting point will be without a supplier in retroactive cancellations starting from the day after the cancellation date. Based on the forwarded cancellation notification, the previous supplier can notify Datahub of the termination of its own sales agreement without the 14-day limit, provided the termination is made on the working day following the cancellation notification. The termination date can be, at the earliest, the start date of the cancelled agreement if the cancellation is made before the agreement start date, or the date of the cancellation notice if the cancellation is made after the agreement has started.

The examples illustrate cancellations made before and after the agreement start date for different reasons, and their impact on the accounting point’s agreement information and balance data.

Grid agreement cancellation

The cancellation of sales agreements may also lead to the cancellation of a grid agreement. The DSO must cancel a grid agreement in Datahub if the grid agreement was originally confirmed based on a cancelled sales agreement. The old grid agreement will be automatically restored in Datahub based on a cancellation if this grid agreement was created in Datahub in conjunction with the creation of the sales agreement that is to be cancelled. A grid agreement terminated using a termination notification is not restored. If a sales agreement is cancelled with the reason ‘Cancellation due to a supplier related reason’, the corresponding grid agreement is not cancelled and the old grid agreement is not restored in Datahub.

Regarding grid agreement cancellation and the restoration of a previous grid agreement, the resulting agreement situation in Datahub is based on rules similar to the sales agreement cancellation. When a grid agreement is cancelled, the possible previous grid agreement at the accounting point is restored. If the previous grid agreement already had an end date before the agreement being cancelled was created, the previous grid agreement is restored only until said end date. If there already is a future grid agreement, the previous grid agreement is restored only until the start date of the future grid agreement. If the cancellation is reported retroactively after the closing of the balance window with the reason ‘customer’s cancellation’, the previous grid agreement is not restored, and the cancelled grid agreement remains valid until the closing of the balance window and is cancelled from then on. If there is no previous grid agreement, the accounting point is left without a grid agreement. As an exception to the previous rule, if a grid agreement is cancelled retroactively with reason customer’s cancellation and there is no previous grid agreement, the grid agreement is cancelled only starting from the date when the cancellation is reported. Then the grid agreement being cancelled remains valid in Datahub from its start date until the date the cancellation was sent to Datahub. If the grid agreement remains valid for some time upon the cancellation, Datahub notifies the DSO of the date from which the agreement is cancelled (= until when the agreement remains valid).

If the cancellation of the agreement reported to Datahub is expecting the cancellation notification of the other market party, this is notified within seven days of receipt of the cancellation notification. Information about cancellations is still accepted after this period, but interventions will be made if notifications are repeatedly sent late.