EDI Frequently Asked Questions

GISB Maintenance:

PPL’s GISB engine will have a scheduled outage for routine maintenance every Sunday from 5AM EST to 9AM EST.

814s:

1. On rejected 814C transactions, we echo back the requested change.
   
   
2. On an accepted 814E response, PPL is unable to echo back the Contract Effective Date Time Zone. Instead, accepted 814E responses will send back the Contract Effective Time converted into EST.
   
   
3. When PPL receives an 814C bill option request from an EGS, PPL handles the bill change as a customer switch. What this means is that the current relationship is made pending inactive and a new one is created (with the new bill option) as pending active. The set-up of the relationships is based on the 16-day rule.

There is one important issue regarding the effective date of the change. Please note the following regarding the effective date on the 814C response from PPL (DTM*007 segment):

Say the scheduled meter reads for a customer are 11/17, 12/17, and 1/17. The customer is currently 2-bill. PPL receives a bill change request (2 to 1 bill) on 12/1. We make the requesting EGS pending inactive (with a 2-bill option) and pending active (with a 1-bill option) both effective on 12/17. The account will bill as a 2-bill for the last time in December. Therefore, EGSs should NOT send an 810 for the period 11/17 to 12/17 in December. If they do, the 810 will be rejected with an error of OBW (outside bill window), since the account will have billed as soon as the 867 is sent to the EGS.

AFTER the account bills in December, the 1-bill option becomes effective. The EGS may send 810s when the account bills in January for the period 12/17-1/7.

867s:

1. If an account is finalled, PPL will send a final 867 to the appropriate EGS. If the EGS misses the bill window, PPL will not be able to bill that customer for the EGS charges after the final billing. The EGS will have to bill the customer for those charges.
   
   
2. If a customer switches from EGS A to EGS B (or to PLR), EGS A will be issued a final 867. If EGS A misses the bill window, PPL will not be able to bill the customer for the EGS A charges after this final billing for EGS A. EGS A will have to bill the customer for those charges.
   
   
3. If PPL receives an MI (Meter Information) request, either through the standalone 814HM request or along with an 814E request, PPL will respond with a status code of SNP (Service Not Provided) and status reason text of “Meter Information Requests Not Supported”.

810s:

1. PPL will accept 810 charge lines as follows:
   
   If the EGS uses upper AND lower case characters, maximum charge line length will be: 40 characters
   
   If the EGS uses upper case characters ONLY, maximum charge line length will be: 37 characters
   
   
2. PPL accepts message line lengths of 80 characters, as previously communicated. EGSs may use both upper and lower case in the EDI 810 message line fields as well.
   
   Rather than splitting a message into two lines, PPL suggests EGSs use as many characters out of the 80 possible in each message line. This will allow for a more aesthetic appearance of the messages on the customer’s bill.
   
   
3. PPL cannot process 810s where the sum of all charges, taxes, and credits result in a net negative total (per 810).
   
   
4. PPL is unable to process 810 reversals or cancels.
   

Production EDI Processing Time:

PPL will retrieve EDI transactions from our mailbox Monday through Friday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Prevailing Time excluding PPL’s official company holidays.

Miscellaneous Information

Our Customer Support System cannot properly bill PPL unmetered accounts that have been registered with a Choice supplier under the one-bill option. Therefore, all unmetered accounts must be enrolled under the 2-bill option ONLY.