Terminology

Here we describe the terminology used in MicroPowerManager:

Term	Description
Device	Devices are the assets that can be managed with MPM that require the integration with a third-party token generation system (API integration). At the moment, the 3 device categories are mini-grid electricity pre-paid meters, solar home systems (SHS) and e-bikes. MPM users cannot create other devices. Each new device (whether a mini-grid pre-paid meter, SHS or e-bike) must be assigned under a pre-defined cluster, mini-grid project and village (i.e. even if a company is only managing 100 SHSs (and no mini-grid customers), a “mini-grid project” must be defined in MPM under which the 100 SHSs are registered. Potential development work would include substituting the term “mini-grid” for “catchment area”.
Device Registration Hierarchy	Every newly registered device has to be assigned to a village, mini-grid project and cluster. One or more villages may belong to the same mini-grid project. And one or more mini-grid projects may belong to the same cluster. Therefore, defining the village / mini-grid project / cluster layers precedes device registration on MPM.
Village	Name of the town where the registered devices are located. When user wants to create a new cluster and mini-grid project, it is required to first create at least one village on MPM. What is not allowed/possible on MPM is to have a village in a cluster without pre-assigning it to a mini-grid project (even if the devices are not mini-grid electricity meters).
Mini-Grid	It is an off-grid electricity distribution network that includes small/medium-scale electricity generation. The way MPM is currently developed, a mini-grid must be defined (together with a cluster and village, see below) in order to register new devices on MPM (whether they are mini-grid connections, SHSs or e-bikes).. Each mini-grid customer has its own electricity pre-paid meter. Customers top up via mobile money or cash payments (to a company Agent) their accounts. MPM uses the received money to generate and share an electricity token to the customer. Customer introduces the token to its electricity meter and can then consume electricity.
Cluster	The area that covers a geography of grouped devices (whether mini-grids, SHSs or e-bikes). In order to register new mini-grids, SHSs or e-bikes as devices on your MPM account, you will also have to define a cluster and village (to which the devices are assigned to).
Solar Home System	Stand-alone photovoltaic systems supplying power for lighting and appliances to remote off-grid households. In MPM, SHSs are paid for by customers via pay-as-you-go schemes (monthly instalments).
Appliance	These are assets that require electrical power to be operated. MPM enables the creation of new appliance types and the management of appliances’ re-payment schemes (such as mills, water pumps, fridges, TVs, etc.). Appliances are pre-financed by the company and re-paid by customers on a pay-as-you-go basis (monthly instalments). The difference with SHSs and e-bike (devices) is that appliances do not require tokens nor API integration for their usage. They can be created by a mini-grid admin (from the website interface) and can be sold by a third-party (Agent).
Users	Anyone with log in credentials to access the company’s account on MPM. This differs from Agents and from service maintenance providers, who can only access the Agent app on their phone (not the website interface).
Agent	A company employee located on-site that serves as a customer support point. Common tasks of an Agent are to gather customer complaints or generate mini-grid electricity tokens on behalf of customers (who, for instance, do not use mobile money). Agents’ log in credentials allow them to use the Customer Registration and Agent apps, but not to access the company MPM account on the website interface. You can register as many Agents as you want on your MPM website account (see “Agent” section for further information).
Service Maintenance Provider	These are persons that may not necessarily be your company employees but that you rely on on a case-by-case basis to resolve technical issues on site. Having registered them on your MPM account allows your to directly notify them via SMS from the MPM website interface.
Customer	It defines individual clients and businesses registered in MPManager. Devices are assigned to customers. A customer may own more than one device and appliance).
Meter	A pre-paid energy meter that works with an STS-Token. These are only applicable for mini-grid connections/customers.
Transaction	Incoming payments from customers. Transactions serve both the re-payment of appliances as well as the activation of a token generation (to continue using one of the devices). Each payment for a device is linked to the device number (separate transactions must be performed by a customer to top up a mini-grid electricity meter, SHS or e-bike).
Ticket	It is the place where customer problems, complaints, and demands are collected.
Tariff	The combination of energy(kWh) price and the fixed price (access rate). It is applicable only to mini-grid connections/customers.
Target	It is a goal for a mini-grid project/cluster of devices that the company intends to reach ba a given time. Targets generally refer, for instance, to a certain amount of revenues or number of customers to be reached for a given village/mini-grid/cluster by a certain date. Further development work: code amendment to enable this feature from functioning properly.
Maintenance	This is the place where external maintenance service provider are assigned to predefined jobs like "connect a new house-hold to the grid", "replacing faulty meters", etc.