XRN 4865
Amendment to Treatment and Reporting of CYCL Reads

Summary

This Change is in scope of June 2020 Release.

An issue has been identified with the estimated read created for the confirmation effective date (CED) for class 3 and 4 meter points in the case where the asset is installed for a date prior to the confirmation effective date. The estimated read which is currently stored in the system as a CYCL read is reported to the shippers in the MBR file. Below are the issues identified on this read:

- The CYCL estimated read is being incorrectly treated as an actual read for any subsequent read validations, even though it is an estimate. Since the CYCL read which is an estimated read is being used for read validations, it is resulting in subsequent reads being incorrectly rejected if they are lower than the CYCL read.

- The read type in the MBR file for the CYCL estimated read is being incorrectly reported as N (normal) instead of E (estimate).

- The read reason code description in the MBR file format does not state that CYCL read can relate to a Back Billing estimated read for Confirmation effective date. Although it was agreed as a part of an industry workaround to send such estimated reads as CYCL reads in the MBR file, there was no change done to the file format description which is now not consistent with what is being reported in the file.

Once XRN4534 (Amendment to RGMA validations) is implemented as part of Future Release 3 Track 2B in March 2019, the instances of generation of such estimated CYCL reads will increase. Due to the consequential impact to read rejections and inconsistent reporting of reads in MBR file, this change needs to be implemented as soon as possible. Customers are aware of the issue and tickets have been raised regarding this.