How does ETL process map to MS Excel Power Pivot (Data Model)

Question

Moderator please move to appropriate forum if required.

I use MS Excel 2016 for data visualization.

Can understand Extract means saving Excel data onto a spreadsheet and Transforming data means manipulating it in Power Query.

QUESTION:

But if I decide to load data to Power Pivot (Data Model) doesn't that fall back into Transform because you can

1. Create Calendar Table

2. Create Measures (or Calculate Columns if necessary)

Or does using Power Pivot (Data Model) fall under Data Modelling because you are no longer formatting, merging pre-existing data;

Rather you are creating new data (i.e. Calendar Table, Measures, etc) to merge with pre-existing data

Kindly clarify

Answer 1

Power Query (now standard excel 2016 in data tab): is an ETL (Extract - Transform - Load) tool. A standard example would be that you would connect it to your source ERP system, and make a product table. That wouldn't be an exact copy of the table, but could consist out of several tables, that are joined. You keep only the relevant columns.

Power Pivot: this is a data modelling tool, it allows you to create relations between data and attribute tables. It gives you the possibility to use time related measures (YTD, Previous Year, ...).

In general when you build your model in power pivot, you can choose to either load the data directly into power pivot (without power query). This is useful if you already have a datawarehouse in which the ETL process is done. If you have an ETL process to execute, it's better to use power query, and load the data into power pivot. (option: load to data model).