CREDO is designed to undertake the validation of reads obtained in the field by meter reading agents. This is done automatically, with the software pulling the necessary historical and configuration information from the host portfolio. The software is designed to cope with standard errors including:-

• Inclusion of tenth kW digits (read ten times to large)
• Misplaced decimal point (read ten times too small)
• Swapped Registers (read is assigned to the wrong register)
• Transposed digits
• Meter rollovers

The software can be configured to calculate the expected read and the upper and lower tolerances which would normally be expected. CREDO also makes decisions about the best read to use (where more than one read is received for a particular date) and takes into account new connection anomalies.

Underlying the software is a set of components which can be implemented in almost any order within an operating framework. This framework allows end-users to implement (e.g.) the swapped register component without the other components should that be required. This flexibility enables new components to be added as these are developed or targeted work to be attempted against reads received from specific sources.

CREDO has been in operation in a large NHHDC for around 1 year during which time the NHHDC’s performance as measured by Elexon has significantly improved. CREDO can be easily integrated into any NHHDC’s portfolio systems either as a stand-alone system or as a more tightly coupled component of the NHHDCs systems as the NHHDC chooses.

Salient suggest that the software is configured to calculate the expected read and the upper and lower tolerances before the read request and the upper and lower tolerances are sent to the data capture terminal and then use the software to validate the returned read. The upper and lower tolerances ensure that the read obtained is likely to be within the acceptable bands thus improving the integrity of the captured data whilst still being able to deal with common reader errors on the read’s return.

During operation, CREDO captures all of the decisions made during read validation and records these in the audit tables. The information recorded includes whether the read could be validated and which corrective check was used to validate the read. This in turn allows detailed trending of reads and the corrections needed to pass reads. Access to the audit tables is provided through Salient’s Generic Reporting tool which greatly simplifies the report writing enabling lower level users to construct reports (depending, of course, on the level of access they have been granted).

CREDO’s proven design enables utilities to reduce costs spent on manual validation of reads whilst increasing the consistency of the validation process and the value of the information held within the host portfolio. This must be the goal for all NHHDCs.

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