Data Release Consultation: Data flows under P315 Data Licence (DR531721 & DR699000)

Elexon’s initial assessment of the requested data set

Previous restrictions from the P315 licence were based on the cost of accessing the data. As this cost was set to £0 in BSC Panel 321, the restrictions due to the cost to access the data need no longer apply.

Elexon have assessed each data item on the four triage categories:

• Consumer Privacy – A person who can be identified from the information requested – either directly or indirectly in combination with other information
• Negative Consumer Impact – Likely to drive actions that will negatively impact consumers
• Security – Creates incremental, or exacerbates existing, security issues which cannot be mitigated via sensible security protocols such as physical site security, robust cyber security or buffer databases
• Commercial – Relates to the private administration of a business or, data not collected as part of an obligation by a regulated monopoly and would not have been originated or captured without the activity of the organisation

Elexon found no issues with publishing all the data items contained within the P0276 and P0277 data flows when assessing against the four triaging categories. The data items relate to groups of Supplier level data and have no attribution to individual consumers or organisations that could be used to derive the market share of Suppliers.

The Open publication allows unrestricted improvements to be made to the delivery of the data sets as requested in the Open Data Request.

The different Classifications that can be applied to a dataset being processed through the Open Data Request service can be found in the Open Data Request are of the Open Data Request webpage. This also contains templates for licences of each classification. Please note, other than the BSC Open Data Licence, the other templates will be modified and be bespoke to the Data Request to which they apply.

How Elexon proposes to mitigate the data to make it more open (if applicable) and what the subsequent triage and classification shall be

Elexon will apply no mitigation techniques to the raw data as there are no sensitivity issues contained in the data.

What will be the benefits to BSC Parties, wider industry, and/or requester should the requested data be released?

Elexon has considered the findings of the Electricity Data Taskforce: A Strategy for a Modern Digitalised Energy System when assessing the benefits of publishing data contained within an Open Data Request. When assessing the data items contained within Requests DR531721 & DR699000.

Maximising the value of data 

The provision of data items within the P0276 and P0277 data files under a BSC Open Data Licence will allow users of the data to share, publish and manipulate the data knowing whilst fully understanding the restrictions on the data. Users of the data will be able to interpret and provide insight to the data, providing enhanced understanding throughout industry.

With the increasing investment in the move to Net Zero these data flows will provide an essential view to aid in facilitating better network modelling and improve demand/renewables forecasting. The P0276 flow will allow access to view the GSP Group level of distributed generation, which is becoming a more exotic mix with increasing battery storage. Hence, providing an alternative view, which cannot be derived by current SAA-I014 Settlement Report that net of import and export volumes masking gross Supplier consumption by embedded generation. Furthermore, the P0277 flow allows an insight into electricity consumption by aggregating down into different customer groups.

When Classified as Open, Elexon can improve the readability and understanding of the data as they too will be able to manipulate and publish the data in more readable, discoverable and searchable routes.

Visibility of Infrastructure and Assets

Data held within P315 can help inform work on building a Digital System Map of the Energy System and allow participants to take part in their own monitoring of the Great British Electricity System.

Visibility of Data

Classifying the data items within the P0276 and P0277 as Open will allow the Elexon and other data users to republish the data in more visible locations and formats.

Having access to system wide Balancing Market data will allow for new data tools, solutions and platforms to be built by a wide range of stakeholders. Namely, innovation will play an important role in the transition to a Net-Zero. This demonstrates industry need for these datasets to be available as openly as possible.

The triaging and classification of these data items allows the Elexon to process Open Data Requests related to these data items without the blocker of a signed Licence and presents clear reasoning for how each data item should be treated in the Open Data Request process.

What will be the impacts to BSC Parties, wider industry, and/or requester should the requested data be released?

Elexon have not identified any negative impacts to BSC Parties in the Open publication of data items within the P00276 and P0277 flows.

Whether Elexon is aware of similar data sets produced by themselves or other organisations

Elexon has assessed the data already available through its own publications and other industry providers. Elexon are not aware of any Open publications of the data items contained in DR531721 & DR699000

Whether the data set could be coupled with other data sets (published by Elexon or others) for commercial, nefarious or other purposes

None of the data items pertain to individual consumers or organisations. Elexon do not perceive any issues with coupling this data.

What (if any) will be the risk to Settlement, Elexon and Industry members as applicable?

Elexon do not perceive any risks to Settlement through the publication of this data.

What will be the cost for the Elexon in terms of time and money to create the data set? This will include BSC agent costs as well as any ongoing costs if applicable.

Elexon already provides these data sets to individual businesses under the P315 Licence agreement free of charge. Elexon have assessed the delivery of these data sets under an Open Licence which would be delivered at no significant cost through the established channels.

Currently this data is published through on the Elexon Portal, which requires an account and authentication. Elexon will publish these data items on the Elexon Portal on a daily basis subject to the approval of the data items being classified as Open.

Whether the data set is proposed to be re-published at given intervals, or as a one-off

Elexon will publish daily P0276 and P0277 files each day on an unrestricted area of the Elexon Portal.

Elexon will look to publishing these data sets outside of the Elexon Portal, in a data repository that does not require authentication. This will be explored subject to the data items are classified as Open.

How often the BCB should review whether the data set remains extant or whether it will be published in perpetuity to be reviewed by exception

The data sets contained within this Open Data Request will be published in perpetuity and Elexon propose this dataset not be reviewed by the BCB unless requested via an Open Data Request.

 Elexon’s initial recommendation to BCB

Our recommendation is that the two data flows currently subject to the P315 Licensing arrangements be published through the current infrastructure and format under the BSC Open Data License. Please refer to the classification column of the reference table for this consultation to determine each data item and its classification recommendation.