P398 ‘Increasing access to BSC Data’
P398 seeks to increase accessibility to data held by Elexon and BSC Agents. It will better align the BSC with the United Kingdom’s Industrial Strategy.
Current Status
Summary
In June 2019 the Energy Data Task Force (EDTF) published its report ‘A Strategy for a Modern Digitalised Energy System’. One of its recommendations was that the energy sector should ‘adopt the principle that Energy System Data should be Presumed Open’. The EDTF report recommends that BEIS and/or Ofgem should use legislative and regulatory powers to achieve this recommendation.
The BSC does not fully adhere to open data principles however, by taking action now, we can remain at the forefront of industry development and will be able to create the precedence for industry to follow/emulate.
P398 proposes amending the BSC so that all data is assumed open unless there is a reason otherwise. The Panel (or delegated Sub-Committee) will determine if there is any reason not to make data available. This will be done based on a transparent process of triage and categorisation. In the longer term, we will look at an IT solution to make accessing BSC data even easier than having to make a formal request for release/publication.
Progression
Elexon recommended to the Panel, at its meeting on 12 December 2019, that a Modification should be raised to increase access to BSC data. The Panel agreed to raise the Modification Proposal in accordance with Section F2.1.1(d)(I).
The First Workgroup meeting took place on 16 January 2020 at Elexon’s offices. The Workgroup established the principles for how the BSC should facilitate Open Data. The Papers shared with the Workgroup before the meeting are below. In addition the following links were provided to the Workgroup for further information:
- The Ofgem, data and cyber security webpages
- The early draft of Data Best Practice Guidance, developed between Ofgem and the Energy Systems Catapult (ESC)
- The Modernising Energy Data website – this is a new experimental website whereby industry parties will be able to publish what they’re working on with regards to data – we are the organisation outside of Ofgem to contribute to the site.
The meeting notes are included in the documents folder below.
The second Workgroup occurred on 30 March 2020, the meeting documents are below. This Meeting finalised the solution. The Business Requirements we also agreed and we resolved some outstanding legal queries.
The third Workgroup meeting was on 18 August 2020. The Workgroup agreed the draft legal text and consultation content.
The Assessment Phase consultation was issued on 24 August 2020 and ran until 14 September 2020.
The final Workgroup meeting was held on 25 September 2020 to discuss consultation responses and make their final recommendations to the BSC Panel.
The P398 Assessment Report was presented to the Panel at its meeting on 8 October 2020 (Panel 307/07). The BSC Panel initially agreed unanimously that P398 will better facilitate Applicable BSC Objective (c) compared to the current baseline. The Panel initially recommended P398 should be approved and sent to Ofgem for decision (not a Self-Governance Modification Proposal).
The Report Phase consultation ran from 15 October 2020 till 16 November 2020, there were two responses with no changes required to the drafting. The Draft Recommendation Report was presented to the Panel at its December meeting and they agreed to recommend implementation to the Authority.
The Authority published their decision to approve P398 on 3 February 2021 for implementation on 24 June 2021.
P398 was Implemented on 24 June 2021.
Next Events
No further events scheduled. This Modification was implemented on 24 June 2021.