How does period price shaping work?
Last updated: April 2, 2026
Price weighted shaping weights multiple prices over a period into a single price. For example, four quarterly prices can be consolidated in to a single price for a calendar year (CY) or financial year (FY).
How are prices consolidated?
The process is applied to each rate (e.g. Peak or Off Peak) defined for a period.
In this example we'll consolidate Peak prices only. When price shaping occurs, all part rates (Peak, Off Peak or Peak, Shoulder, Off Peak) are weighted into a respective CY or FY price.
Step 1: Calculate contract periods
A contract term must be divided into its corresponding contract periods, defined by calendar years or financial years. Each contract period includes a specific start date and end date.
The following steps are then executed per contract period.
Step 2: Calculate the number of Peak intervals
The contract period is further broken down into 5m intervals.
Each interval is determined (in this example) as a Peak or Off Peak interval.
The total number of intervals is then counted.
Step 3: Determine the correct prices for every Peak interval
The contract period will have a number of prices defined, for example quarterly prices. Each Peak interval is mapped to its correct price.
Step 4: Sum all Peak prices for every Peak interval
Sum the all the Peak prices mapped to every Peak interval.
Step 5: Calculate the final period price
At this point we have:
Total number of Peak intervals
The total Peak prices
The final step is to divide the total price sum by the total interval count.