Settlements, which are the financial reconciliations that keep energy markets running, have long relied on outdated systems that require intensive manual effort and lack scalability. Many utilities still operate homegrown settlement solutions built decades ago, relying on sampling methodologies to estimate customer energy usage. However, today’s energy markets are increasingly more complex, with new energy players such as solar and wind power, and battery storage participants. Countries across the globe are issuing new mandates for more granularity in energy reporting, such as U.K.’s 30-minute settlement and Australia’s 5-minute settlement mandates. Increased granularity increases transparency and is essential in gaining consumer engagement in both curbing demand and participating in solving our energy challenges, but it makes it very difficult for utilities to continue managing settlement processes manually.  

Just as utilities deployed advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to gain access to granular interval data, they now need to modernize their energy settlement process to leverage scalability, validation and efficiency in how they collect, report and settle energy transactions. 

What Is an Energy Settlement System? 

An Energy Settlement System is a critical software platform that centralizes and processes data from generators (who produce energy), distributors (who provide it to the market), energy meters (which collect consumption data) and distributed energy resources (like solar, wind and batteries). The utility has the obligation to take in this energy generation and consumption data, validate it against its own billing records and report it to the Settlement Authority which records and disperses funds to generators. 

This process manages vast amounts of data which must be tracked and validated and comply with regulatory requirements. An Energy Settlement system is essential to managing a utility’s settlement operations efficiently and accurately.  

With a robust meter data management system, such as Itron’s IEE Meter Data Management System (IEE MDM), utilities benefit from the collection, validation and scalability of a proven solution deployed globally. With the addition of an IEE Settlements module, utilities can now leverage their IEE MDM data to seamlessly integrate settlement operations and provide a unified view into their MDM and Settlements operations.  

By integrating MDMS into their settlements processes, utilities can transition from labor-intensive, error-prone workflows to automated, real-time data management. 

How Do Utilities Benefit from an MDMS for Settlements? 

A scalable MDMS offers significant advantages in streamlining settlements: 

• Reduce risk by leveraging a proven, high-scale platform tailored for market requirements. 
• Eliminate redundant costs associated with maintaining legacy systems, vendor contracts and manual business processes. 
• Automate manual processes, including data transfers and settlement-point modeling updates, to minimize errors. 
• Simplify compliance by standardizing settlements reporting and streamlining interactions with market operators. 
• Optimize efficiency by reallocating staff from manual settlements tasks to strategic operational initiatives. 
• Prepare for future market transitions, ensuring seamless adoption of interval-based settlements at both wholesale and retail levels. 

Itron’s IEE MDMS: A Modern Approach to Settlements 

Itron’s IEE MDMS provides utilities with a comprehensive, market-ready solution for managing interval data and automating settlements. With its advanced computational capabilities and integration-ready architecture, IEE MDMS enables utilities to fully harness the benefits of AMI data.  Itron worked with a group of Australian utilities to design the solution, which can quickly process terabytes of data to generate settlement reports or exchange data between relevant operational systems, including billing, customer information systems (CIS) or forecasting. Now, 90% of Australia’s utilities are using IEE Settlements to meet the five-minute mandate for wholesale electricity settlements. By efficiently processing large volumes of interval data with IEE MDMS, utilities can successfully transition away from outdated legacy systems. 

The Path Forward 

As more utilities invest in AMI and gain access to interval data, an MDMS becomes essential for transforming that data into actionable business intelligence. By adopting an MDMS with robust settlements functionality, utilities can eliminate inefficiencies, enhance compliance and future-proof their operations.  

To learn more about Itron’s IEE MDMS and how it supports modern settlement processes, read our recently published white paper, Global Energy Settlements: Embracing Automation for Modernization and Precision and stop by Itron booth #3008 at DISTRIBUTECH 2025, from March 24-27 in Dallas, TX.