This consultation seeks to publish the count of Metering Systems per Data Collector (DC), Data Aggregator (DA) and Meter Operating Agent (MOA) under a BSC Open Data Licence. This will improve the visibility of the market for these roles.
Who will this impact?
The approval of publishing the data items within this consultation under a BSC Open Data Licence will provide new data to all BSC Data users.
In particular, this will impact BSC Parties with the role of:
- DA (Data Aggregators) (Half Hourly and Non-Half Hourly)
- DC (Data Collectors) (Half Hourly and Non-Half Hourly)
- MOA (Meter Operating Agents)
What is proposed?
Elexon have assessed these five data items which aim to provide better visibility of the distribution of MPANs through the composition of the market for each role. A single snapshot of the data provided on a quarterly basis would allow an insight in the changes in customer base between different agents and also an insight in the progression of the industry in moving from NHH to HH metering.
What data will this impact?
Our assessment and recommended Classifications of the data items within the Open Data Request are summarised in the Table below. Each data item has been assessed on the criteria defined within the Process for Requesting BSC Data Code Subsidiary Document.
Table: Data items and their recommended Classification
|
Data Item
|
Elexon Recommendation
|
Rationale
|
|
Total number of MPANs per MO
|
Open
|
The data item identifies the MO id, however Elexon do not foresee any negative consumer impact from the Open publication of this data item. Elexon also see no sensitivity related to this item and a benefit to industry to publish.
|
|
Total number of MPANs per HH & NHH DC
|
Open
|
The data item identifies the DC id, however Elexon do not foresee any negative consumer impact from the Open publication of this data item. Elexon also see no sensitivity related to this item and a benefit to industry to publish.
|
|
Total number of MPANs per HH & NHH DA
|
Open
|
The data item identifies the DA id, however Elexon do not foresee any negative consumer impact from the Open publication of this data item. Elexon also see no sensitivity related to this item and a benefit to industry to publish.
|
Once these data items are deemed Open, Elexon will scope publishing these data items in the Trading Operations Report through a csv and a Power BI visualisation which will be updated on a quarterly basis.
Recommendation
Elexon recommends all data items contained within DR197306 be Classified as Open and published under the BSC Open Data Licence.
Background to this proposal
On 30 September 2021, Elexon received an Open Data Request to openly publish a monthly report that outlines the MPAN counts for agents which are appointed, covering MO (Meter Operators), HH DC (Data Collectors), NHH DC, HH DA (Data Aggregators) and NHH DA roles.
Initial triage and classification
Elexon’s initial assessment of the requested data set
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 when assessing against the first three triaging categories. The data items only relate to the total number of MPANs and have no attribution to individual consumers.
The data items could however provide a commercial conflict between any two agents when comparing the total count of MPANs giving an indication of market share on a quarterly basis. Elexon do not foresee to a significant benefit from increasing access to this information as the published data does not give specific information on the metering systems involved. Nonetheless, for completeness, Elexon will be seeking any disagreement to this consultation with these agents directly.
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 Classification part of the Open Data Request webpage. This also contains templates for licences of each classification, in this case the Open Data Licence will be used.
Proposed Mitigation
How Elexon proposes to mitigate the data to make it more open (if applicable) and what the subsequent triage and classification shall be
The number of MPANs will be aggregated by Agent. Elexon will perform no further mitigation techniques as no sensitivity issues are foreseen with the aggregated figures.
Benefits and Impacts
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 Request DR197306 these findings are of significance:
Maximising the value of data
Supplying these data items through visualisations and via csv files under an Open Data Licence will allow the industry to see the competition introduced between agents of each type. This would indicate the level of growth of agents. The data will also provide a quarterly indication of the growth of the migration to a HH market from a NHH market.
Visibility of Data
Users of the data will be able to interpret and provide insight to the data, providing enhanced understanding throughout industry.
What will be the impacts to BSC Parties, wider industry, and/or requester should the requested data be released
Some stakeholders to whom the data pertains may have a desire for the data items to not be published under the Open classification. However, Elexon believes no significant commercial benefit can be gained by agents through the Open publication of this data.
Elexon will be notifying these stakeholders of this Industry Consultation and seeking any disagreement on publishing these figures under an Open Data Licence.
Duplication & Coupling
Duplication: Whether Elexon is aware of similar data sets produced by themselves or other organisations
Elexon has assessed the data already available through it’s own publications and other industry providers. Elexon are not aware of any Open publications of the data items contained in DR712203.
Coupling: Whether the data set could be coupled with other data sets (published by Elexon or others) for commercial, nefarious or other purposes
Elexon have not identified any datasets with which the data items within DR712203 could be coupled for commercial, nefarious or other purposes.
Risk & Costs
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 receives the requested data items through existing data pipelines. By using the Trading Operations Report for delivery, Elexon do not foresee any extra or ongoing costs to providing the data items within DR197306.
Periodicity & Review Period
Periodicity: Whether the data set is proposed to be re-published at given intervals, or as a one-off
Elexon will publish the number of MPANs per role in the Trading Operations Report through a csv file and a Power BI visualisation which will provide a snapshot of the data items on a quarterly basis.
Review period: 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 the Elexon propose this dataset not be reviewed by the BCB unless requested via an Open Data Request.
