900 Excel files become a fully integrated SAP solution: modern heat contracting at Energie Wasser Bern.
Our assignment: ewb’s existing Excel tool for heat contracting, used for over 300 heating networks with more than 400 plants, was to be replaced by a modern, standardized solution – without media discontinuities, fully integrated into SAP on the basis of SAP IS-U.
THE CHALLENGES
Compared to the billing of electricity, the billing of a heating network includes many additional factors that must be taken into account in order to be able to issue a correct invoice. Among other things, these include heat losses that are passed on to the end customers, operating costs that must be included in the calculation as well as capital costs incurred by the system, the individual energy costs of various heat generators such as heat pumps, gas, oil, etc. The billing of a heat network includes many additional factors that must be taken into account in order to be able to issue a correct invoice.
By including reference calculations and various indices, the municipal energy supplier has perfected the calculation model down to the smallest detail. This complex model with highly individual billing schemes had to be mapped in the new solution, and technical master data also had to be built up.
OUR APPROACH
We standardized the contents and logics of the existing Excel solution for the billing of heating networks and fully integrated them into SAP. The calculations were mapped using various tools such as BRF+ and ABAP coding. This includes the entire, highly detailed calculation, such as consideration of the passing on of heat losses, operating and capital costs of plants, different energy costs, reference calculations as well as various indices to compensate for large price fluctuations. In addition, we defined suitable master data management via SAP IS-U in conjunction with SAP EAM. The calculation results were stored in the corresponding SAP objects for further processing in billing.
THE RESULT
Previously, Energie Wasser Bern had three different Excel files per heating network and thus around 900 Excel files – now a fully integrated solution in SAP can be accessed. Not only can data and meter reading be recorded, but also complex cost accounting (heat losses, operating costs, capital costs, energy costs with indexing mechanisms) and invoicing (directly via SAP IS-U Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable) can be realized.
For the energy supplier, this means more transparency, more efficiency, and significantly increased data quality.
About ewb
Energie Wasser Bern is an independent, public enterprise of the city of Bern and one of the five biggest municipal energy suppliers in Switzerland employing over 600 people.
Customers include around 70.000 households, 8.000 small to medium-sized enterprises and 100 major customers. ewb ensures the supply of electricity, district heat, natural gas, biogas, water and transforms waste into energy for the city of Bern. ewb also offers services for e-mobility and gas-fueled mobility and constructs the municipal fiber-optic network.
LEARN MORE
