When a Grid company calculates how much you have to pay in grid tariff and your electricity consumption, they will prepare a settlement. This could be based on actual or estimated consumption.
For the grid companies, settlements form part of the metering and billing process. For many energy companies, this is a cumbersome process which involves extensive manual work and many potential error sources. However, using modern technology, it is now possible to digitalize and automate the metering and billing process.
Using the new smart electricity meters (AMS) enables better information to be collected concerning electricity consumption, which in terms enables more precise settlement, so that customers are billed based on their actual consumption.