BSC Insight: How to find your own insights from Supplier Market Share data

In this BSC Insight, Emma Tribe our Senior Product Analyst and Nick Groves our Data Steward Lead, demonstrate some of the insights that are possible using data from the Quarterly Supplier Market Share report from Elexon.

Using this report you can understand the average number of metering systems for each Supplier above a threshold and compare that to the total electricity demand for their customers. By analysing the data going back to 2016, you can see how the electricity market shares have changed for different Suppliers over the past five years.

What is the Gross Supplier Market Share Report?

Elexon have been publishing data on the number of MSIDs and volume of Electricity for electricity suppliers since 2016. Elexon created this report to implement BSC Modification 315 ‘Publication of Gross Supplier Market’ Share Data

The report was introduced to provide transparency to BSC Parties and other interested Parties so that they can understand Suppliers gross consumption and market share. Modification P315 requires a quarterly public report, which summarises the average number of Meter Point Administration Numbers (MPANs) and total volume of electricity by Supplier and consumption reporting group.

There are certain thresholds which determine whether Suppliers can be included in the report. The supplier must have either, or both, of the below requirements:

• An average number of Profile Class 1 and 2 MPANs over the reporting quarter of 250,000 or more; or
• An aggregated consumption volume across Profile Classes 3 to 8 and Half Hourly (HH) customers over the reporting quarter of 500GWh or more.

The average number of MPAN’s and electricity volume of Suppliers that do not meet the requirements are aggregated as ‘Other Suppliers’ in the report.

MPANs in Profile Class 1 and 2 are for domestic supply, while MPANs in Profile Class 3 and 4 and in the Half Hourly market are non-domestic.

Recent changes to the Gross Supplier Market Share Reports

We have introduced a number of changes to the presentation of the report to improve the usability and to bring it more in line with the look and feel of our other regular reports, such as the Trading Operations Report, System Price Analysis Report and Peer Comparison Graphs.

The changes introduced to this report are:

• Introduction of data visuals that enable customers to view the data as a bar chart, pie chart or data table
• Filters for the data to show different quarters and supplier consumption reporting groups
• Downloadable CSV file containing all of the data from previous quarters
• Ability to follow the page to be notified when the report is updated

Insights from the Gross Supplier Market Share Report

The new data visuals to display the gross Supplier Market Share report enable you to discover your own insights from Supplier market share data. The visualisations are the ‘Number of Metering Systems by Supplier’ visualisation and the ‘Quarterly Energy volume in MWh by Supplier’ visualisation.

Number of Metering Systems by Supplier

The number of Metering Systems by Supplier can be viewed as a bar chart to compare the total number of metering systems per supplier. There is also the option to view as a pie chart to compare the share of total metering systems for each supplier.

Filters at the side of the report allow you to view a specific group of metering systems, such as Profile Class 1 and 2, or HH Metered Export. There is also a filter in the top right hand corner to view the same data from previous quarters.

Quarterly Energy volume in MWh by Supplier

The Quarterly Energy volume in MWh report shows the total quarterly energy volume in megawatt hours (MWh). Some suppliers have a smaller portfolio of metering systems, but greater quarterly energy consumption for the customers they do have. Therefore, the order of the Suppliers is different compared to the Metering Systems by Supplier graph. If you look at the data from both graphs allows you to form a more complete picture of supplier’s market shares.

Changes from the previous reporting style

Previously the report was published each quarter as an excel file containing data from the latest quarter. To explore the data you would need to download an excel file for each quarter. In the new format, nothing needs to be downloaded for you to view, explore and analyse the data.

However, if you would like to create more in-depth, bespoke analysis of the data, two csv files containing all the data going back to the start of the report are available to download. One csv file contains the quarterly electricity volumes and the other file, average MPANs during the quarter.

Changes to the electricity supply market over the last five years

Using the csv download of the data, we were able animate the data to show how the electricity supply market has changed over the last five years.

The two videos below animate the MPANs per Supplier for the Half Hourly and Non Half Hourly markets.

By animating the number of Non Half Hourly (NHH) MPANs per Supplier, we are able to see how the spread of customers in this market has changed. Previously there was a large gap between the six Suppliers with the greatest share of MPANs and the rest of the market. This animation shows how gradually that gap has decreased, to the point that in Q1 2021 the spread of MPAN’s among suppliers is a far smoother curve.

This view of the data shows the impact of BSC Modification P272 ‘Mandatory Half Hourly Settlement for Profile Classes 5 to 8’, implemented in April 2017. Following this modification, more Suppliers moved their portfolio into the Half Hourly Market. There have also been suppliers who moved MPAN’s back to the Non Half Hourly Market following a trial period in the Half Hourly Market.

The first Supplier Market Share report published referred to Q3 2016; there were 17 Suppliers that met the reporting requirement in this quarter. In the latest quarter published, Q1 2021, there are 21 Suppliers that met the reporting requirement. Of the 21 Suppliers in the latest report, 13 were in the original report.

Further improvements to Elexons regular reports

As well as our one off BSC Insight pieces, we also produce a suite of monthly and quarterly data reports, such as the Gross Supplier Market Report. The changes we have recently introduced to these reports are to make them web based, insightful and interactive.

A lot of our reports now have surveys included on the webpage, so you can directly feedback how useful you found the report.

If you have any suggestions for future insight articles or comments about how we can improve our analysis and insight offerings, please get in touch with the team [email protected].