2020: Reflecting on the year no one expected
In this end of year review, Rebecca Fowler from the Communications and Engagement team looks at an eventful 2020 in which the electricity industry faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elexon has worked to help ease the burden that our customers have faced as a result. Let us have a look back at a challenging year.
Managing the COVID-19 crisis
Business as usual
Consistent with government guidelines, since 16 March all Elexon colleagues have been working from home and remotely operating the BSC and EMR arrangements as usual. The closure of the office has so far not resulted in any issues with our services, and we continue to deliver high standards of customer service.
Performance Assurance
To help our customers manage the impact of COVID-19 we wanted to ease the burden of compliance with the BSC for our customers.
We worked with the Performance Assurance Board (PAB) to put in place a set of supporting measures. These were:
- derogations allowing Suppliers to instruct their agents to provide estimated consumptions for use in Settlement that reflect the realities of the lockdown.
- suspending Error and Failure Resolution (EFR) targets.
- suspending the charges Suppliers would normally face if they missed certain Settlement performance targets.
The consumption estimation derogation was due to end on 31 December 2020. However, shortly after the Government announced a second lockdown in November, the PAB concluded this derogation should continue for the foreseeable future. The derogation on Settlement performance targets is also still in force. Therefore, only the requirement to meet EFR targets has resumed.
Technical Assurance
At its March 2020 meeting, the PAB suspended Technical Assurance of Metering (TAM) activities to allow Parties to prioritise BAU during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the suspension remains in place, at its June meeting the PAB agreed that BSC Parties are now able to opt into Technical Assurance Agent (TAA) Desktop Audits and Inspection Visits.
In March 2020, the PAB also agreed to postpone Technical Assurance of Performance Assurance Party (TAPAP) checks whilst the full lockdown was in place. It agreed to resume the TAPAP technique from September 2020.
BSC Change prioritisation
The BSC Panel decided that changes to the BSC (and its subsidiary documents) would continue to be progressed in 2020, but would be prioritised based on whether the change:
- is required to mitigate risks and issues caused by COVID-19
- is required to be implemented by a fixed deadline, and
- has minimal impact on market participants, unless required for the previous two points.
The Panel agreed, at its meeting on 10 December 2020, to extend the COVID-19 prioritisation approach until 31 March 2021.
Supplier Charges
BSC Modification P406 suspended Supplier Charge Serials SP08 and SP04 from the March 2020 Performance Assurance Reporting and Monitoring System (PARMS) reporting period. The decision to reinstate Supplier Charges will be made by the BSC Panel at a later date.
Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement (MHH Settlement)
With Ofgem’s agreement, we adjusted the work plans for the two MHH Settlement industry working groups that we are leading – the Code Change and Development Group (CCDG) and the Architecture Working Group (AWG) – to take account of any industry resource constraints during the pandemic.
On 17 December, we published a consultation on behalf of the CCDG on the detailed design of, and Industry Code changes from, the MHH Settlement Target Operating Model (TOM). In April 2021, we anticipate publishing a consultation from the AWG on reference architecture to support the TOM.
Latest COVID-19 information
For the latest on how COVID-19 is impacting the BSC, then please check our dedicated Coronavirus page.
What else has Elexon done?
During 2020, we supported our customers and made improvements to our services. We also helped to deliver major regulatory changes. This included:
Putting customers first
- returning £1.5million to BSC Parties through a reduction in Elexon’s billing. We were able to do this because of a number of cost efficiencies and savings made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- the results of Elexon’s annual BSC Survey showing that Parties are seeing improvements in a number of our core services. The results also highlighted that customers appreciated Elexon’s support during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 50% of respondents said they highly rated our adaptability, an increase of 16% compared with 2019. In addition to this, 71% of customers also highly rated our quality of service.
- redesigning the BSC website and introducing a new glossary function on the BSC website, and plain English explanations of complex terms.
- developing the Customer Solution as part of our Digitalisation programme, which has just been released to a limited number of customers as part of a trial prior to the full industry launch in January 2021
- developing the Customer Solution as part of our Digitalisation programme, which has just been released to a limited number of customers as part of a trial prior to the full industry launch in January 2021
-
opening up the Elexon Kinnect Customer Solution to industry in a soft launch. Five customers are taking part in the trial period of around six weeks. It involves using the Customer Solution self-service gateway to manage their accounts, including their assets and organisation details. We’ll be asking for participants’ views on the tool throughout December and into January, and responding to their feedback prior to opening up the Customer Solution to industry in January 2021.
- launching a new Elexon corporate website.
- publishing the Balancing and Settlement Code for Dummies, (no longer available).
- increasing access to electricity market data through our Open Settlement Data page.
- published 10 Insight articles where we interpret and analyse data to help customers understand trends in the market.
Supporting regulatory change and Innovation
- deploying the technical changes necessary for the Trans European Replacement Reserve Exchange (TERRE) platform. This enables BSC Parties to trade in the European electricity market.
- overseeing introduction of a much larger Market Domain Data set, which supports Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review (TCR) reforms.
- making our BSC Sandbox service available so innovators can trail ideas and concepts.
Looking forward
2020 has been extremely difficult and challenging for all companies in the energy industry. We believe we have worked effectively alongside our customers and stakeholders to help them manage the issues they face. As always, we aim to improve and evolve our services to meet the needs of our customers.
We are looking forward to delivering the activities outlined in our new 2021/22 business plan over the coming year. Until then we wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a happy and heathy New Year.