FERC Reporting Options on SAP

Utilities on SAP, learn everything about FERC reporting options on SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC at next week's SAP for Utilities conference in San Diego. HPC America will share its 25 years of experience in utility accounting and the SAP ERP.

On Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 1:10pm, HPC's customer Salt River Project will present its case study about FERC optimization and preparation for migration to SAP S/4HANA. SRP implemented HPC Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA) in 2018 in order to eliminate reconciliation differences between GAAP and FERC, speed up the monthly trace, and improve other regulatory reporting processes and results. HPC UFA is a NetWeaver-based add-on software solution that eliminates the delivered FERC module's inherent limitations, and runs on both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA. Read the full SRP case study and learn more about HPC UFA.

HPC's latest software innovation is HPC DECIPHER, an add-on regulatory financials solution that is certified by SAP as integrated with SAP S/4HANA. HPC DECIPHER provides real-time reporting and takes full advantage of the line items in S/4HANA's Universal Journal (table ACDOCA). It translates transactions from natural to regulatory accounts as they are posted, eliminating period-end batch processes, and uses dedicated, parallel ledgers for full FERC details. HPC DECIPHER also includes comprehensive functionality for allocations, adjustments, and cost flow forensics directly in the ERP. Learn more about HPC DECIPHER for real-time regulatory (FERC) reporting on SAP S/4HANA.

To schedule a meeting with HPC at the 2019 SAP for Utilities conference, please contact us.

Salt River Project Simplifies FERC on SAP ECC and Improves Readiness for SAP S/4HANA

Salt River Project (SRP) is a community-based not-for-profit utility that provides reliable, affordable water and power to more than two million people in central Arizona. SRP has provided these essential resources for more than a century to meet the needs of customers and help the region grow. SRP has been on SAP since 2013, and currently runs SAP ECC 6.0 on Suite on HANA and BW on HANA.

In anticipation of its migration to SAP S/4HANA in 2023, Salt River Project engaged HPC America in to evaluate its current SAP Financials processes and results, and to identify areas for improvement that would not only deliver immediate benefits, but also streamline the utility’s eventual transition to S/4HANA.

After the assessment, SRP engaged HPC to optimize its FERC model with HPC Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA) add-on software. HPC UFA eliminates the FERC module’s limitations, and runs on both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA.

Five months later, SRP was ready to go live with its new FERC design. The project achieved all intended objectives and more: SRP’s balances by FERC account now match exactly—to the penny—its reports by order number, WBS element, cost element, and cost center, thereby making functionalized data far more intuitive for users to analyze.

Download the full case study to read all the benefits SRP now enjoys.

SAP FERC Implementation with HPC UFA

Another utility company has selected HPC America to implement a best practices FERC regulatory accounting solution in its SAP system. This latest project will strengthen the utility's preparation for and position in rate cases; reduce reliance on processes outside the ERP; and optimize the use of internal and PM orders—all while minimizing disruption to field operations.

To modernize its regulatory accounting configuration and support future growth, the utility has selected HPC Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA), which is certified by SAP as powered by the NetWeaver® technology platform. HPC UFA improves the trace functionality and reporting capabilities of the legacy SAP FERC solution—which HPC had originally created for Pacific Gas & Electric and then sold to SAP in the mid-nineties—and also provides advanced recasting and budgeting features for regulatory reporting on SAP. HPC UFA will allow the utility to go live with its new FERC solution in time for 2015 reporting.

In addition, the project includes replacement of an extensive assessment process with an overhead-centric model that will improve transparency of labor burdens for benefits, payroll taxes, PTO, supervision, engineering, A&G transfer to construction, and store expense burdens on material issues. HPC advocates this design to minimize reliance on difficult-to-understand assessments, improve the predictability of estimating job costs, ensure that shared costs are applied as fairly as possible across WBS elements, and increase the efficiency of the month-end close.

SAP FERC Enhancement Project

This summer, we conducted a top-level assessment of a utility's SAP IS-U/FERC module configuration and business processes, and identified a number of enhancements that would benefit the company—both in its daily operations and for its future plans to join the state ISO.

Next week, we begin the full-scale implementation to realize the following four goals:

1. A streamlined FERC process that can be run monthly.


2. An efficient and accurate process for handling actual labor charges, secondary cost element credits on cost centers, and related secondary cost element debits on non-capital PM/Internal Orders, such that payroll taxes and benefits currently included in fully loaded labor rates are calculated correctly and applied through overhead processes.


3. A consolidated process to manage Fleet costs and equipment charges, such that line item detail for maintenance of equipment does not appear in distribution/transmission O&M FERC accounts.


4. An efficient and automated way to determine appropriate allocations to FERC accounts without having to mimic the flow-of-cost trace outside of SAP.

This work will utilize key functionality of HPC's SAP-certified software solution Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA) that is not included in the standard FERC module, in order to increase the project's efficiency; reduce ongoing trace workload and errors; improve the speed and accuracy of new order creation; automate translation of natural accounts to regulatory categories; and facilitate better ongoing table maintenance.

Stay tuned for additional insights and results as the project unfolds in the coming months.

Pepco Holdings Implements HPC Utility Financials Accelerator

Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI) is one of the largest energy delivery companies in the Mid-Atlantic region, serving about two million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and New Jersey. PHI wanted to enhance its processes of categorizing and reporting accounting data, and selected HPC Utility Financials Accelerator to deliver greater automation and less reliance on external Excel files outside of SAP. Just nine months after kickoff, PHI and HPC achieved all of the project's initial objectives. Read the complete case study to learn more about the innovations that HPC brought to PHI.