Managing Network Price Changes in Factor

Network price changes are a regular occurrence in the energy industry, with utilities and network operators updating their tariffs periodically to reflect changing costs, regulatory requirements, and market conditions. Factor's flexible rate management system allows you to prepare for and implement these changes efficiently while maintaining accurate billing throughout the transition.

Understanding Network Price Change Cycles

Network operators typically announce price changes well in advance, often providing 30-90 days' notice before implementation. These changes can include adjustments to energy rates, demand charges, daily connection fees, and temporal pricing structures. Understanding your network operator's change cycle helps you plan and prepare updates to your Factor rate sets accordingly.

Preparing for Network Price Changes

Step 1: Review the Price Change Notice

When you receive notification of upcoming network price changes, carefully review the documentation to identify:

• Which rate codes will be affected

• The effective date of the changes

• New pricing amounts for each affected rate code

• Any changes to temporal structures (peak/off-peak periods)

• New or discontinued rate codes

Step 2: Identify Affected Rate Sets

Determine which of your existing rate sets contain the rate codes that will be impacted by the network price changes. Remember, Factor's inheritance structure means that changes to a parent rate set will automatically flow through to any child rate sets that inherit from it.

Step 3: Plan Your Update Strategy

Consider whether to:

• Update existing rate codes within current rate sets

• Create new rate sets for the changed pricing

• Modify temporal partitions if time-of-use periods have changed

Implementing Network Price Changes

Method 1: Adding New Rates to Existing Rate Codes

The most common approach is to add new rates to existing rate codes with the appropriate "Valid From" date:

1. Navigate to your existing rate set containing the affected rate codes

2. For each rate code requiring updates, click to edit the rate

3. Click the "+" button to add a new rate version

4. Configure the new rate with:

   • Valid From date matching the network operator's effective date

   • Updated pricing amounts

   • Appropriate currency and units

   • Correct rate type (flat or temporal)

5. Save the updated rate set

Factor's time-slicing functionality ensures the old rates remain active until the specified date, then automatically switches to the new rates.

Method 2: Creating New Rate Sets

For significant price restructures or when you want to maintain clear version control:

1. Create a new rate set with a descriptive name indicating the effective date

2. Inherit rate codes from your existing rate set for unchanged rates

3. Define new rate codes for any modified pricing structures

4. Configure all rates with the appropriate "Valid From" dates

Method 3: Updating Temporal Structures

If the network price changes include modifications to time-of-use periods:

1. Create or modify the relevant partition to reflect new time periods

2. Update affected temporal rates to reference the new partition

3. Ensure all rate amounts align with the new time structure

Best Practices for Managing Price Changes

Timing Your Updates

• Implement changes as early as possible to allow for testing and ensure future forecasts are using accurate rates.

Testing and Validation

• Use Factor's rating preview functionality to test the new rates before using them in forecasting

• Validate that the transition date aligns correctly with billing periods

• Confirm that inherited rate sets reflect the changes as expected

Documentation and Communication

• Maintain clear naming conventions for rate sets that include effective dates

• Document the source of price changes (network operator notices, regulatory decisions)

• Communicate changes to relevant team members before implementation

Managing Multiple Networks

If you operate across multiple network areas:

• Create separate rate sets for each network operator

• Use consistent naming conventions to identify network-specific rates

• Stagger implementation if networks have different effective dates

• Consider using rate set inheritance to manage common rate codes across networks

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Inherited Rate Conflicts

When using rate set inheritance, be aware that if both a parent rate set and child rate set contain the same rate code, the rating process will error and fail to complete. Before implementing network price changes:

• Review all inherited rate sets to identify any duplicate rate codes

• Either remove the rate code from the child rate set (to use the inherited version) or remove it from the parent rate set (to use the child-specific version)

• Consider restructuring your rate set hierarchy if conflicts are frequent

Historical Impact

Remember that charges will always to use the rates that were active during their respective periods. Adding new time sliced rates will not change existing rates.