CIM Issues #5950
How is readCycle used, should the definition be updated?
61968-9, 61968-11
Description
In UsagePoint there is an attribute readCycle with the definition:
Cycle day on which the meter for this usage point will normally be read. Usually correlated with the billing cycle.
The datatype is string, so it is not obvious how it is used. Perhaps it is used to tell the date in a month. Or? How is it implemented?
In WG16 it has been suggested to add an attribute called meterReadingResolution in a class inheriting from UsagePoint with the definition ”The length of time between the regular meter readings.” The datatype will be Duration. See issue https://redmine.ucaiug.org/issues/5803.
The idea is to inform the Energy supplier if he will get metered values per 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 60 minutes (1 hour), once a day, once a month or once a year.
If readCycle would tell how often you read the meter, then WG16 would not need to add the attribute meterReadingResolution, but could use the inherited attribute from UsagePoint instead.
But then the definition of Read cycle would need to be changed since it describes a “day”, perhaps then to something like:
Read Cycle for when the meter for this usage point will normally be read. May be correlated with the billing cycle.
In connection with this, we could also look at the issue https://redmine.ucaiug.org/issues/5803, a suggestion to add an attribute “nextReadingSchedule”. That is currently implemented (outside CIM) telling the date or month when the (next) reading will occur. This might be similar to how readCycle is implemented.
Release Notes
The "readCycle" and "Cycle Day" are throwbacks to when utilities read meters manually. A meter reading person would walk a route. Different utilities take different approaches, and use different labels, but they might label 1/4 of the meters "Week1", another fourth of the meters "Week2", another "Week3", and the last group "Week4". Each month, when it was the first, second, third, or fourth week of the month, the meter reader would walk his route and read that meter that week. Then, after running the data through an MDMS, it would go to billing, be printed, and mailed to the consumer. The printing, stuffing, and mailing might occur in the early days of the following week. Each utility has their own process. This label was to help utilities understand how they affiliate data with certain locations.