Energy and utilities
Energy and Utilities EDI and API Integration
Market transactions between utilities and energy suppliers, handled by the rules of each market
In U.S. states with retail energy choice, a customer's switch to a competitive supplier starts a chain of electronic transactions between the supplier and the local utility, from enrollment and usage to billing and payment. Each market publishes its own rules. ECOM connects those transactions to your customer information and billing systems, and handles the supply chain documents a utility exchanges with its own vendors.
At a glance
Key documents
- 814 Enrollments and Service Requests
- 867 Usage and Resale Reports
- 810 Invoices
- 820 Payments and Remittance
- 824 Application Acknowledgments
- 650 Maintenance Service Orders
Systems we integrate
- Customer information system (CIS)
- Billing and settlement
- Meter data management
- ERP and procurement
PRISM products
- PRISM-EDI
- PRISM-SCV
- PRISM-SmartConvert
- Who we help
- Competitive retail electricity and gas suppliers, local distribution utilities, and the purchasing teams that buy materials for utility operations.
- What we connect
- Your customer, billing and trading systems to each utility or market under its published transaction rules, and your purchasing systems to suppliers and distributors.
- Problems we solve
- Rejected enrollments, usage and bill mismatches, and market rules that differ by state and by utility.
- Even without EDI
- Where a market, utility or supplier uses a portal, API, spreadsheet, PDF or flat file instead of EDI, ECOM works with those routes as well.
What is energy and utility EDI?
Energy and utility EDI is the exchange of standardized transactions between local distribution utilities, competitive retail suppliers and other market participants. In U.S. retail choice markets it is built mainly on ANSI X12, with the 814 for enrollment, drops and account changes, the 867 for usage, the 810 for bills and the 820 for payments. Each state or market operator publishes implementation guides, such as Texas SET for the ERCOT market, so the same transaction set carries different rules in each market.
Who you connect with
Who an energy business exchanges data with
Retail market transactions, wholesale gas scheduling and utility purchasing are different exchanges with different parties. Each group below connects in the way it supports.
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Local distribution utilities
Enrollment and drop requests, usage, bills, rejections
EDI and utility portals -
Retail customers and brokers
Account data, rates, bills, payments
Files, portals and APIs -
Pipelines and gas schedulers
Nominations, confirmations, scheduled quantities
NAESB standards, EDI or web -
Banks and payment processors
Remittance and payment files
Bank files and payment EDI -
Distributors and equipment suppliers
Purchase orders, ship notices, invoices
EDI, supplier portals, PDFs
Energy workflows
Market transactions, gas scheduling and procurement are different projects
Most search and project needs fall into one of these. Retail market connection is different work from buying materials, and the distributor guides below support only the second.
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Retail electricity and gas suppliers
You enroll, switch and bill customers across several utility territories.
- How it runs
- Enrollment and drop requests go to the utility, which accepts or rejects them. The utility then sends usage, and billing and payment follow under the market's billing model.
- Documents
- Systems
- Customer information and billing system, enrollment platform, credit and risk tools.
- Typical problem
- A rejected enrollment or a late drop leaves the customer on the wrong supplier and the bill unmatched.
Source note. Each market publishes its own guides, for example Texas SET for the ERCOT market; maps follow the version in force.
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Local distribution utilities
You receive requests from many suppliers and must apply market rules without manual review.
- How it runs
- Validate supplier requests against account and meter records, answer each one, send usage and billing data, and apply payments.
- Documents
- Systems
- Customer information system, meter data management, billing.
- Typical problem
- Each supplier sends slightly different data, and exceptions land on a small team.
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Natural gas scheduling and transport
You nominate, confirm and schedule gas with pipelines and counterparties.
- How it runs
- Shippers and pipelines exchange nominations, confirmations and scheduled quantities under the NAESB wholesale gas standards and each pipeline's own rules.
- Systems
- Gas scheduling and trading systems, accounting.
- Typical problem
- Pipeline-specific requirements and tight scheduling cycles leave little room for manual re-keying.
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Utility procurement and field operations
Purchasing teams for utilities and energy contractors buying wire, transformers, pipe and equipment.
- How it runs
- Purchase orders, acknowledgments, ship notices and invoices flow with electrical and industrial distributors, with project materials delivered to yards or job sites.
- Systems
- ERP or work-and-asset management, supplier portals.
- Typical problem
- Part-number and unit-of-measure mismatches, and invoices that do not match what was received.
Source note. Electrical-distributor guides support procurement. They do not replace market-connection guidance.
Distributor integration guides -
Petroleum and fuel supply
You buy or sell fuels and lubricants and must match deliveries to invoices.
- How it runs
- Orders, delivery confirmations and invoices move between suppliers and buyers, often in petroleum-industry XML formats or X12.
- Documents
- Systems
- ERP, terminal and dispatch systems.
- Typical problem
- Delivery volumes and invoice quantities that do not agree.
How to read this page: a standard or system named here shows where a requirement is published or what ECOM can connect. It does not mean ECOM has a verified partnership with any named company, and your own contracts and partners define the final requirements.
Who it's for
Different roles, different workflows
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Competitive retail energy suppliers
You enroll customers with each utility, receive usage to bill from, and, depending on the market's billing model, send bill-ready charges or receive the utility's billing and payment data.
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Local distribution utilities
You receive enrollments and drops from many suppliers, confirm switches, send metered usage and, under utility consolidated billing, bill on the suppliers' behalf and remit what you collect.
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Utility procurement and operations
Like any large buyer, a utility orders materials and equipment, receives ship notices and pays suppliers, alongside its market transactions.
How the workflow runs
From a customer's switch to the supplier's payment
A typical retail choice cycle has three parties. The order and timing of each step, and which party bills the customer, are set by each market's rules.
- Customer→Competitive supplier Customer chooses a supplier Sign-up through the supplier's own sales channels.
- Competitive supplier→Local utility 814 Enrollment request Account number, service type and requested start.
- Local utility→Competitive supplier 814 Enrollment response Accepted or rejected, with the switch date.
- Local utility→Competitive supplier 867 Usage Metered consumption for each billing period.
- Competitive supplier→Local utility 810 Supplier charges Under utility consolidated billing, bill-ready charges.
- Local utility→Competitive supplier 820 Payment and remittance What the utility collected and remits.
- 01
Enroll and switch
The supplier sends an 814 enrollment request; the utility validates the account and answers with an 814 response and the switch date. Drops, moves and changes use the same transaction set.
- 02
Report usage
The utility sends 867 usage for each billing period, from interval or monthly meter reads, which the supplier's billing system needs to bill the customer.
- 03
Bill the customer
Depending on the market's billing options, the utility bills on the supplier's behalf, the supplier bills separately, or the supplier sends bill-ready charges for the utility's bill.
- 04
Pay and reconcile
Remittance arrives in an 820 where the utility collects for the supplier. Rejections and errors come back as 824 application advices and must be corrected and resent.
Beyond EDI
Every way energy data arrives, normalized into your systems
Market transactions often arrive as EDI. Procurement and customer data also arrive as portal downloads, spreadsheets and PDFs. ECOM turns each into the format your systems expect.
How it arrives
- EDIEnrollment, usage and billing transactions
- PortalUtility and market web portals
- APICustomer and partner data services
- Flat fileAgreed market and bank files
- SpreadsheetBroker rate and usage sheets
- PDF or emailSupplier invoices and confirmations
ECOM
- Validate every file or message
- Map to each partner's rules
- Deliver, acknowledge and monitor
Where it goes
- CIS and billing
- Settlement
- Customer service
- Exception queues
Challenges
Integration challenges in energy and utilities
Every market writes its own rules
The same 814 or 867 carries different segments, codes and timing in each state, and guides change on each market's release schedule.
Rejections that stall a switch
An 814 rejected for a mismatched account number or service address delays the customer's start date, and the reason is easy to miss.
Usage that does not match the bill
Missing, cancelled or restated 867 usage leaves billing working from incomplete data and produces corrections later.
Payments that are hard to reconcile
Remittance under consolidated billing has to be matched to customer accounts and periods before revenue can be recognized.
How we help
How ECOM supports energy and utilities companies
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Market-specific maps
814, 867, 810, 820, 824 and 650 maps built to each market's implementation guide, maintained as guides change.
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CIS and billing integration
Enrollment, usage and billing data loaded into your customer information and billing systems through files, APIs or databases.
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Exception handling
Rejected enrollments, missing usage and failed documents surfaced as exceptions with the reason, so they can be corrected and resent.
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Secure connectivity
Connections to each utility, supplier or market hub over the methods they require, such as AS2, SFTP or HTTPS.
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Utility procurement
Purchase orders, acknowledgments, ship notices and invoices with materials and equipment suppliers, connected to your ERP.
PRISM products
Which PRISM products apply
Each partner connects in the way it can support. These products cover the connections and visibility this industry needs most.
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PRISM-EDI
Exchange of 814, 867, 810, 820 and 824 transactions with each market participant, translated to and from your CIS and billing systems.
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PRISM-SCV
Monitoring of transactions and exceptions, such as enrollments without a response or billing periods without usage.
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PRISM-SmartConvert
Supplier invoices and documents that arrive as PDFs or emails converted into structured data for utility procurement.
Systems integration
What energy market EDI connects to
Market transactions only help when they update the systems that serve and bill customers.
From
- Enrollments
- Drops and changes
- Usage files
- Payment files
ECOM · Market transactions
- Validate market rules
- Translate per market
- Route to each system
To
- CIS and billing
- Settlement
- Customer service
- Exception queues
| System | What flows | What to plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Customer information system (CIS) | Enrollments, drops, account changes and switch dates. | Account and premise identifiers must match the utility's records exactly. |
| Billing and settlement | Usage, bill-ready charges, invoices and remittance. | Billing models differ by market, and so do the documents each party sends. |
| Meter data management | Interval and monthly reads behind the 867. | Restated or cancelled usage must replace earlier data, not add to it. |
| ERP and procurement | Materials orders, ship notices, invoices and payments. | The same documents as other industries, with each supplier's requirements. |
Standards
Market guides and energy standards
Retail electricity and gas markets each publish their own guides, and wholesale gas and electricity trading follow NAESB standards.
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State market guides
Each retail choice market publishes implementation guides for its transactions, for example Texas SET for the ERCOT market. Maps follow the version in force in each market.
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NAESB quadrants
NAESB develops standards for wholesale electric, retail electric, wholesale gas and retail gas markets, including the business practices behind gas nominations and scheduling.
NAESB quadrants in detail -
Testing and certification
Markets and utilities typically require testing before a supplier goes live. Plan test scripts for enrollments, drops, usage and rejections.
Trading partners
Guides for electrical distributors that supply utilities
Utilities buy materials and equipment through electrical distributors, using the same purchasing documents as other industries.
All distributor guides-
Wesco International
Electrical and utility products distributor; the guide covers the documents commonly exchanged.
Wesco International in detail -
Border States
Electrical distributor; the guide covers documents and connection options.
Border States in detail -
Graybar
Electrical and communications distributor; the guide covers documents and planning points.
Graybar in detail
Implementation
What to plan for in an energy market EDI project
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List every market and utility
Each market, and sometimes each utility within it, adds rules. A clear list sets the scope for maps and testing.
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Agree the billing model
Utility consolidated, rate-ready, bill-ready or dual billing each change which documents you send and receive.
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Plan for guide changes
Market guides are revised on their own schedules. Budget time to update and retest maps when a new version takes effect.
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Watch rejections daily
An unworked 824 or rejected 814 becomes a missed switch date. Route them to the team that can fix them.
Documents and standards
Common transactions
X12 transactions used in U.S. retail energy markets, named as each market applies them. Gas markets and wholesale activity follow standards from the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB).
| Code | Document | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 814 | Enrollments and Service RequestsX12 name: General Request, Response or Confirmation | Enrolls, drops and changes customer accounts. |
| 867 | Usage and Resale ReportsX12 name: Product Transfer and Resale Report | Reports metered usage. |
| 810 | Invoices | Carries bill or bill-ready charges. |
| 820 | Payments and RemittanceX12 name: Payment Order/Remittance Advice | Remits collected payments. |
| 824 | Application AcknowledgmentsX12 name: Application Advice | Reports rejected or erroneous transactions. |
| 650 | Maintenance Service Orders | Requests field service, such as a meter read. |
Scenarios
Typical integration scenarios
Supplier entering a new market
Build and test the market's transactions with each utility before enrolling the first customer.
Utility modernizing market EDI
Move supplier exchanges onto a monitored platform connected to the CIS and billing systems.
Supplier reconciling payments
Match 820 remittance from utilities to customer accounts and billing periods.
Frequently asked questions
Which EDI transactions do retail energy markets use?
Most U.S. retail choice markets use X12 814 for enrollments and account changes, 867 for usage, 810 for bills or bill-ready charges, 820 for payments and 824 for rejections. Each market's implementation guide defines the details.
Are energy EDI rules the same in every state?
No. Each market publishes its own guides and billing options, and some utilities add requirements, so maps are built and tested per market.
Does ECOM provide a customer information or billing system?
No. ECOM integrates the market transactions with the CIS, billing and meter data systems you already run. Those systems remain your system of record.
What is NAESB?
The North American Energy Standards Board develops business practice and communication standards for wholesale and retail natural gas and electricity markets.
Can a utility also use EDI with its own suppliers?
Yes. Utilities exchange purchase orders, ship notices and invoices with materials and equipment suppliers in the same way as other large buyers.
How to get started
Tell us who you trade with and what you run
- Send the basics. Your trading partners, the documents they require, your ERP or other systems, and any deadline.
- We review the requirements. An ECOM specialist looks at the partner programs, document formats and connections involved.
- You decide how to proceed. We outline the options, including managed services or software, for you to compare.
Helpful to share, but not required
You do not need an implementation guide or a finished requirements list to contact us. If you have these, they speed things up:
- The states, utilities or markets you serve, and whether you are a supplier, a utility or a buyer.
- The market or utility guide versions you must follow, if you have them; if not, we can help work out which apply.
- Your customer information or billing system, and how enrollment and usage files are handled today.
- Any rejection or reconciliation problem you want fixed first, and your go-live date.
See how ECOM works with customers: case studies ERP integrations compare delivery options (software, managed or team-based)
Plan your next market
Tell us which markets and utilities you work with and the systems you bill from. An ECOM specialist will outline the transactions and testing involved.