From Meter-to-Cash to Agent-to-Agent Utilities: An Enterprise Architecture Framework for Autonomous Revenue Management in Sap-Based Utility Operations

Abstract

Utility revenue-cycle systems built on SAP Meter-to-Cash architectures, spanning Customer Information Systems, Meter Data Management, and Financial Contract Accounting (FI-CA), were designed for periodic, deterministic billing cycles. The proliferation of distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and large flexible loads such as artificial intelligence data centers has introduced revenue exposure that shifts faster than these systems were built to govern. This paper develops an enterprise architecture framework for delegating specific revenue-management functions, billing exception handling, revenue protection, settlement, and credit risk assessment, to autonomous software agents operating within a governed SAP execution layer (FI-CA, Business AI, Joule, Agent Builder). Rather than treating the entire utility enterprise as a single agent ecosystem, the framework isolates the revenue-management layer and specifies a tiered decision-authority model in which agent autonomy varies by decision type: full authority for reversible, high-volume decisions; shared authority for financially material actions; and no autonomous authority for disconnections, rate filings, or regulatory submissions. The framework is examined through an illustrative case constructed for a representative mid-sized North American utility and grounded in enterprise implementation experience with SAP FI-CA exception remediation. Findings suggest that governed agent delegation can compress revenue-protection response times materially relative to manual escalation processes, although the illustrative figures presented are exploratory rather than empirically validated. The paper's contribution is a decision-authority model specific to utility revenue management, extending prior enterprise-architecture and agent-governance literature, which has largely treated utility digitalization as an undifferentiated whole rather than isolating the financial control layer.