Definition
Profile settlement is used where the total a customer consumed is known, but not when. Annual consumption is spread across the year following a standardised curve meant to resemble how such a customer normally uses electricity - colder in winter, more in the morning and evening. The method was necessary when meters were read once a year, and it has become marginal since the smart-meter rollout: almost every Norwegian metering pointThe fundamental unit in Elhub - the unique point in the electricity network where energy is measured and settled, identified by an 18-digit GSRN number. is now settled on actual hourly values. It nonetheless survives in two places that matter. Historical periods must still be settleable under the rules that applied at the time, and metering points lacking valid hourly values fall back on profile until those values arrive. A system that cannot handle both cannot handle reality.