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Regulatory Change News – Electricity Supply Industry Compliance


Regulatory Change News – Electricity Supply Industry Compliance

There are two main areas of regulation that have to be considered when attempting to address an electricity suppliers’ IT systems industry compliance:

  • Master Registration Agreement
  • Balancing and Settlement Code

Changes to the MRA (including ECOES) and the BSC (including the MDD) are controlled and agreed on a regular basis with publicly available information.

Download EDW's monthly review of approved industry change

EDW monitors the industry on a monthly basis and publishes a review of scheduled industry changes, here:

EDW Industry Change Review January 2023 download.

Detailed below is the industry data sources reviewed by EDW in order to prepare our Industry Change Review.

Overview of EDW's electricity regulatory industry change monitoring

Master Registration Agreement

The Master Registration Agreement is the multi-party agreement between all licensed electricity Distribution Businesses and Suppliers. It sets out terms for the provision of Metering Point Administration Services (MPAS Registrations), and procedures in relation to the Change of Supplier to any premise/metering point.

MRA Products consist of:

Master Registration Agreement

The Master Registration Agreement (MRA) is an Agreement that sets out terms for the provision of Metering Point Administration Services (MPAS Registrations), and procedures in relation to the Change of Supplier to any premise/metering point.

Data Transfer Catalogue

The Data Transfer Catalogue (DTC) accommodates the inter-operational exchange of information enabling effective interface between industry participants.   DTC flows are sent between market participants over the Data Transfer Network.

MRA Agreed Procedures

MRA Agreed Procedures (MAPs) are linked to specific MRA Clauses and provide further procedural details (mandatory).

MRASCo Model

The MRASCo Model is a diagrammatical representation of the GB Electricity Retail Design.

Working Practice Product Set

The Working Practice Product Set (WPPS) provides guidance on operational aspects of the GB Electricity Retail Market (not mandatory).

Guidelines

Guidelines (GD) give guidance on market-level processes within the GB Electricity Retail Market (not mandatory).

Release Information

The MRA and its associated documents (DTC, E2Es, WPPS, MAPs etc.) are either governance documents or "best practice" indicators to support the operation of the retail UK Electricity market. As this market is dynamic and subject to update and development a formal process is managed by MEC and delivered through Gemserv where all proposed changes are considered by a MEC appointed Sub-Committee, the MRA Development Board (MDB).  Each product release is accompanied by a document listing:

  • the current version of each MRA Product and its release date;
  • a register of each product in the release along with which Change Proposals modified the Products; and the DTC implementation schedule.

The Change Management procedure for MRA Products is set out in MAP06. This document sets out the timescales and procedures under which pre-assessments or Change Proposals are raised in relation to the MRA and its associated products, assessed by MRA Parties, and voted on by MDB.

The Implementation Timetable is updated on a monthly basis following change proposal decisions made by the MRA Development Board.   Five working days after each meeting of MDB MRASCo publishes a document providing summaries of accepted Change Proposals along with their implementation dates.

Changes to the DTC are often the easiest to interpret, at least once the particular version of the DTC containing the change has been published. 

The Electricity Central Online Enquiry Service (ECOES)

The Electricity Central Online Enquiry Service (ECOES) is funded by electricity suppliers and distributors and governed under the Master Registration Agreement (MRA).  Specifically, it is governed by MAP15 of the MRA.

ECOES is designed to assist Suppliers in the customer transfer process by allowing the triangulation of data; it is also used to provide benefit to MRA parties in other key areas.

As well as access to ECOES data on-line, some of the data contained in ECOES is provided to suppliers on a DVD.  ERS contains a database that should be populated with this data to enable it to be used to support certain features of the application.

Changes to the content of ECOES are reflected in a monthly re-issuing of the ECOES data DVD.

Changes to the structure of ECOES data provided by DVD are managed through changes to MAP15 under the normal MRA change management procedures.

Balancing and Settlement Code

The Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) is a legal document which defines the rules and governance for the balancing mechanism and imbalance settlement processes of electricity in Great Britain.

The BSC is supported by a number of Code Subsidiary Documents:

Balancing and Settlement Code Procedures (BSCP)

BSCPs define the relationships, timescales and interactions between participants and specify the information or other outputs to be exchanged between them.

Party Service Line (PSL)

There is currently a single Party Service Line that details the non-functional requirements that are common to Licensed Distribution System Operators (LDSOs) and SVA Party Agents.

Codes of Practice (CoP)

Codes of Practice detail the technical requirements for Metering Systems.

Business Definition Documents

A collection of specification type documents which includes Data Catalogues, the Reporting Catalogue and the Communications Requirements Document.

Interface Definition Documents (IDD)

The IDD (in two parts; Part 1 and Part 2) lists both fully-automated electronic interfaces and other partially-automated or manual interfaces.

User Requirement Specifications (URS)

The URS sets out the requirements for each of the Central Systems applications, the two Party Agent applications and the PARMS application (but not for the SVAA “minor” applications).

BSC Service Descriptions

The BSC Service Descriptions describe the service to be provided by the BSC Agents. As a general rule, there is one BSC Service Description for each BSC Agent. The exception to this rule is for the Technical Assurance Agent (TAA) which has two, one for SVA and one for CVA.

BSC Change Management

Change to BSC Systems is implemented through a programme of “Releases”.  BSC Systems include Code Subsidiary Documents (CSDs) and other Configurable Items (CIs), BSC Agent Software systems and associated documentation.

A Release is a packet of approved changes (Modifications and / or Change Proposals) which are usually all implemented on the same date, although sometimes Releases may have more than one implementation date.

The Release Strategy provides for three “Planned” Releases each year, in February, June and November. Occasionally, “Special” Releases may be delivered on other dates - usually for Modifications that need to be implemented on a specific date. A planned Release will not take place if there are no approved Modifications or Change Proposals to implement.

Market Domain Data

Market Domain Data is the central repository of reference data used by Suppliers, Supplier Agents and Licensed Distribution System Operators (LDSOs) in the retail electricity market. It is essential to the operation of Supplier Volume Allocation (SVA) Trading Arrangements. MDD is produced by the Supplier Volume Allocation Agent (SVAA) in the form of Data Transfer Network (DTN) flows D0269 (Market Domain Data Complete Set) and D0270 (Market Domain Data Incremental Set).

The MDD change process is governed by a BSCP; specifically, BSCP509 "Changes to Market Domain Data".

The MDD Release Schedule specifies the key dates for each Version of MDD including the date the version is published and when it will go live.  The dates for each Version are based around the dates of each Supplier Volume Allocation Group (SVG) meeting.  In practice, this means a new Version gets released about once a month.  The MDD Release Schedule for a given year will usually be issued in a Circular towards the end of the preceding year.

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