Issue 97 ‘CT Meter stock shortage on the BSC following COVID-19 pandemic’

Due to a global shortage of materials and the on-going impacts of COVID-19 on global supply chains, there is a shortage of semi-conductors among other crucial components, which impacts the ability of Meter manufacturers to produce Meters.

Through engagement with industry colleagues we have become aware that this is impacting on the availability of various types of electricity Meters including those required for Settlement under the BSC.

This shortage of Settlement Meters could impact on a number of BSC processes. Our understanding is that this issue is also impacting the availability of Current Transformer (CT) Metering, which has the highest potential for material impact (due to usually being installed at higher consumption/higher voltage sites).

Thankfully it is currently our understanding that shortages are not impacting on CVA Metering however we will continue to monitor this.

Issue 97 was raised by Elexon on 20 August 2021.

The first Issue 97 meeting was held on Tuesday 28 September 2021 where potential mitigations of the meter shortage were discussed.

The second Issue 97 meeting was held on Monday 15 November 2021 where the aggregated impacts reported through RFIs were discussed.

The third Issue 97 meeting was held on Monday 7 March 2022 where the RFI  data was discussed. The Issue was agreed to be closed and Elexon will continue to monitor the Issue and request RFIs from industry so we can publish the data.