Changing Device Category of a Device

Under various circumstances it will be required to change certain characteristics of an installed device. At many times it is possible to make the required changes to the device directly using the transaction IQ02 / EG42. But sometimes it is required to change several characteristics of a device which may even necessitate to remove the meter and re-install the meter with new characteristics. One of the example scenario is that AMI meters have been installed as a non-AMI device. Later the AMI features were required to be activated.

One approach is to remove the non-AMI meter and then install the same device created under AMI device with the required features. This would result in unnecessary device removals and installations. An alternative approach is to change the device category to an AMI device category for the devices. The steps involved in transaction are shown below:

Select “Change material number” and change the device category of the device. Programmatically this can be achieved using BAPI_EQUI_CHANGE. In the non-AMI to AMI device category change example, the devices under the AMI relevant Device Category are converted to AMI using the standard SAP program REAMI_FILL_AMS_AMCG_IN_DEVICE.

The device category change feature will also be helpful, in cases where devices have been created by mistake under incorrect device categories and installed. Data correction can be done without involving device removal, new device creation and installation.