CP1534 ‘Introduce Change of Supplier (CoS) – No Meter Process’

CP1534 was implemented on 25 February 2021 as part of the February 2021 BSC Release.

The CP1534 Assessment Report was presented to the SVG at its meeting on 1 September 2020.  The committee unanimously approved the CP.

Red-lining changes were made to provide greater clarity to the solution.

Next Steps

CP1534 will be implemented on 25 February 2021.

At it’s meeting on on 3 March 2020 (SVG229/17) SVG confirmed they were happy for the CP to go straight to consultation phase and did not ask for any additional questions to be added to the CP Consultation.

Consultation Responses

There were nine respondents to the consultation, from Market Roles including Suppliers, Supplier Agents and a Distributor.  All nine respondents agreed with the CP, six identified impacts with five identifying costs.

Why Change?

Currently the Supplier Meter Registration Agent (SMRA) allows registrations to be deleted if no Meter has been installed on a Metering Point. This process removes the original Supplier’s registration so that a second Supplier can treat the site as a new connection (rather than a Change of Supplier (CoS)) and arrange for the Meter Operator (MOA) to install a Meter. This functionality will not be available within the Central Switching Service (CSS) which is due to go-live in Summer 2021 (subject to any re-planning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The CoS process, where there is no Metering Equipment at site, is not explicitly defined within the relevant BSCPs. Suppliers and Supplier Agents follow the existing CoS processes, which includes requesting Meter Read History (MRH) that is not available due to the lack of Metering Equipment on site. 

Following the introduction of the CSS, this process will become more prevalent and affect Suppliers, Meter Operator Agents (MOA), Half Hourly Data Collectors (HHDC) and Non Half Hourly Data Collectors (NHHDC).

Next Steps

CP1534 will be presented to SVG for decision at its meeting on Tuesday 1 September 2020.

CP1534 was raised by Elexon on 8 July 2020.  The Change Proposal has been raised on the back of Issue 86 ‘Review of processes potentially impacted by Ofgem’s Faster Switching Programme’