business plan for 2004 - EDP

9 Information Systems
The information systems, as the support and lever of
the Group’s business, developed particularly well
during 2003. The customer management system was
finalised and came on stream, the new telemetering
centre and meter-reading management system was
implemented, the commercial energy selling system
within the non-binding system was developed, a series
of new systems for the Trading and Dispatch of
Generation activities was implemented and launched,
and the GeoEDP project was continued, supporting
distribution network management systems on a geo-
-referenced basis.
New activities were also launched in the areas of IT
security, user access control, activation of legated
systems and distributed systems management.
>> 9.1 Systems
Commercial Distribution System – ClienteMais
Anticipating the needs and demands of the liberalised
energy market, a commercial system was developed and
implemented, characterised by a number of functions
relevant to the optimisation of the customer
management processes for the whole of EDP
Distribuição: management of meter-reading and
management of routes and commercial visits. It is
interesting to see that the system has response capacity
in the management of the operations of utilities other
than electricity.
Integration of information has made the relationship
with suppliers of technical and commercial services
more effective and has allowed interaction with the
customer via the Web: Online Agent, Virtual Shop and
Online Service orders.
Today, the synergies generated in terms of control of the
commercial cycle are clear to see, not only for EDP
Distribuição but also for Lisboagás GDL and EDA –
Electricidade dos Açores, which share the same system.
Telemetering – Data Collection and Processing System
To respond to a major growth in the movement of
customers to the liberalised regime, in which remote
metering equipment (telemetering) has to be installed, a
new data collection system has been acquired sufficient
to collect data from 20 000 customers.
Following the collection of consumption data, they are
forwarded for billing energy to binding customers and
billing network use to non-binding customers. The
meter-reading management system, developed with the
support of the information technologies companies of
the EDP Group, also allows the provision of data to the
market agents, particularly REN/offer manager, sellers
and customers. Investment in the data collection and
management systems amounted to about €1.4 million in
2003.
Information Systems for the Non-binding Sector (SENV)
In the area of selling energy to SENV customers, the
energy sale support, contract management, pricing,
consumption forecast and billing systems were
consolidated and enlarged.
• Operations and Production Despatch Programming
System
During 2003 the operations programming system,
which was adjudicated during 2002, was tested and
came on stream on an experimental basis. It includes
software modules to optimise the production of the
Group’s electricity generating centres in the short and
long term, to evaluate energy offers on the market, to
forecast short-term market prices, and to predict longterm
consumptions. Short-term load forecast and