SAP problems we see in energy and utilities
Utility SAP systems carry millions of contracts, devices and open items. They were designed for a meter read a few times a year, and now receive interval data every day.
IS-U on ECC with a deadline. ECC 6.0 mainstream maintenance ends at the end of 2027. Moving IS-U, FI-CA and years of billing history to S/4HANA Utilities is one of the largest data migrations a utility will run.
Smart meters, old billing logic. Interval data arrives from the AMI head end, but billing still expects periodic reads. Profiles, estimation and time of use tariffs are handled by custom code and manual corrections.
Exception queues that never empty. Implausible reads, billing outsorts and invoice blocks pile up in work lists, so bills go out late, cash collection slows and customer complaints rise.
Custom code in the bill run. Tariff rules, rebates and regulatory adjustments added as Z code over many years. Nobody wants to touch them, and every rate change becomes an IT project.
Assets and field crews outside SAP. Work orders are dispatched from a separate tool, meter exchanges are confirmed days later, and SAP device and asset records drift from what is actually installed.
Slow month end on contract accounts. Millions of open items, payment lot clearing, dunning and write offs run as heavy batch jobs, and reconciliation between FI-CA and the general ledger takes days.