About contract hour change effects on daily and monthly aggregation

When the system is installed, it can be configured to calculate daily and monthly aggregations using one of the following methods:

• Using the Field device local timezone and the Field device contract hour

• Using the timezone configured in the CD_CONTRACT_TIMEZONE_CODE and the meter's Official Contract Hour

The timezone and contract hour determine the span of data that is included when the aggregation is calculated.

When you make changes to the contract hour, it should be changed effective at the new contract hour in the timezone used to calculate the aggregation to ensure that the aggregated rows are correctly calculated.

The Meter Properties are displayed in the system contract time zone (defined in the CD_CONTRACT_TIMEZONE_CODE). This can create instances where the Effective Time timestamp records a different time than would be reported by the Field device local timezone.

As this can be confusing, we perform error-checking to ensure that the contract hours are configured correctly, ensuring that even if the system and field device are in different locations, you will wind up with an accurate contract hour. If the fields are incorrectly set, you will receive an error message.