List of BSC Insights
BSC Insight: How to get more detailed metered volume data from our Insights Solution
Through the electricity Settlement process Elexon obtains metered volume data which shows the generation and demand volumes of electricity for each Balancing Mechanism Unit (BMU) on the system and whether this is an estimated or actual value. This data is included in our SAA-I014 report which covers all Settlement activity for every half hour, each day and it is easily accessible on our wholesale market data service the Insights Solution.
BSC Insight: Accessing Maximum Export Limit and Maximum Import Limit data on our Insights Solution
If you currently use the www.bmreports.com service to access Balancing Mechanism (BM) data, you can now access the data through the new Insights Solution. You can use the ‘Balancing Mechanism data by Market View’ page to view BM Unit data at Market level. It can also be used to view Physical, Dynamic, Bid Offer and Balancing Services Volume data.
BSC Insights: Using Open Data to map the financial impacts of failed Suppliers
In this BSC Insight, Muhammad Raees Usman, Product Analyst in our Analysis & Insight Team, outlines how you can use newly Open Data from the BSC Modification P398 Open Data Request service to gain an insight into the energy market. He does this in view of the unprecedented market conditions experienced in the second half of 2021 and how these conditions led to a substantial number of Supplier default events. The article also provides an insight in to how Python can be used to ingest Open data files for analysis.
BSC Insights: Using the Insights Solution to predict Capacity Market Notices
In this BSC Insight, Angus Fairbairn outlines how you can use forecast data from the Kinnect Insights Solution to monitor generation, demand and margins preceding events on the GB Electricity System. He does this through the lens of the summer 2022 heatwave and the resulting Capacity Market Notices (CMNs).
BSC Insights: How we use the Annual Demand Ratio to maintain accuracy of Settlement data
In this insight article Mehdi Jafari and Jason Jackson explain what the Annual Demand Ratio (ADR) is, how it helps us maintain the accuracy of Settlement data, and what we are doing to resolve potential errors indicated by the ADR.
BSC Insights: The Insights solution puts data on the wholesale market at your fingertips
In this BSC Insight article by Reza Nia, Head of Analysis & Insight, explains why Elexon developed a new data service (the Insights Solution) and the benefits of it to BSC Parties and other stakeholders. All of the Insights Solution data is available to download for free.
BSC Insight: ‘Event-driven’ architecture can help to release the value of energy data
This BSC Insight article, written by Peter Stanley, Director Digital Operations at Elexon, explains why Elexon would be best placed to operate ‘Event-driven’ IT architecture (EDA) to support Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement which is due to be implemented in GB in October 2025.
BSC Insights: Why did the average System Price increase in 2021?
In this BSC Insight our Senior Product Analyst, Emma Tribe, shows how the high wholesale gas prices have caused System Prices to increase to record levels in 2021.
BSC Insight: What is Credit Cover and how does the Credit Assessment Price affect it?
The Credit Assessment Price has changed nine times in 2021 and we recently consulted on increasing the Credit Assessment Price again to a record high of £184/MWh. The Credit Assessment Price is used as a proxy for future Energy Imbalance Prices in the calculation of Credit Cover requirements. Emma Tribe, our Senior Product Analyst from the Analysis and Insights team, explains how the Credit Assessment Price is related to a Parties Credit Cover requirements.
BSC Insight: What is driving the latest increases in Credit Assessment Price?
In this BSC Insight article, Mehdi Jafari outlines the recent trends in forward market prices and how we measure the Credit Assessment Price (CAP) process effectiveness against the System Buy Price. The article also provides an update on our Insight Article in May 2021, where the sixth CAP change of 2021 was in process.
BSC Insight: How to find your own insights from Supplier Market Share data
In this BSC Insight, Emma Tribe our Senior Product Analyst and Nick Groves our Data Steward Lead, demonstrate some of the insights that are possible using data from the Quarterly Supplier Market Share report from Elexon.
BSC Insight: Update on Settlement Performance during the COVID-19 pandemic
In this Insight article, Mehdi Jafari provides an update on the Settlement Performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This BSC Insight follows on from a previous BSC Insight we published to show how COVID-19 pandemic had affected suppliers’ performance in 2020.
BSC Insight: Why Non Half Hourly electricity use increased in the first four months of 2021
In this insight article Emma Tribe, our Analysis and Insight Senior Product Analyst, explains how the colder temperatures between January and April 2021 increased Non Half-Hourly electricity demand.
BSC Insight: Update on Demand Reduction during COVID-19 lockdown
In this BSC Insight, Hussein Osman uses the latest data from BMRS and our internal databases to compare the changes in demand following Government advice that people stay at home with the demand patterns from similar periods in previous years.
BSC insight: Forward Market Prices drive six CAP value reviews this year
We issued a consultation on changing the Credit Assessment Price (CAP) value on 17 May 2021. This is the sixth time in 2021 that the CAP value is going to change. This is the most CAP change events to occur in the first five months of the year since the CAP weekly monitoring process was introduced in 2007.
BSC insight: How Covid-19 impacts Load Profiles
There are two different types of data that the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) requires for electricity Settlement; Half Hourly and Non Half Hourly. Electricity Settlement happens in Half Hourly periods, so Elexon uses the profiling process to calculate Half Hourly data from Non Half Hourly meters. In this Insight article, Mehdi Jafari discusses the Group Average Demand data used in the profiling process and the way it has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
BSC Insight: the impact of Trading Charges in 2020/21
In the 2020/21 financial year, the absolute cashflow for BSC Trading Charges was £2.96bn. This was the most cashflow settled in a financial year. In this BSC Insight our Analysis and Insight Senior Product Analyst, Emma Tribe, explains how BSC Trading Charges are settled by Elexon.
BSC Insight: Unprecedented Price Spikes in 2021
In 2021, we have seen the highest System Prices since 2001, which was the first year of the New Electricity Trading Arrangement. The highest price this year was £4,000/MWh on 8 January in Settlement Periods 39 and 40. On 12 April 2021, the System Price was over £1,000/MWh for five consecutive Settlement Periods. In this BSC Insight, one of our Product Analysts, Angus Fairbairn, looks into how and why these high prices occur.
BSC Insight: Reliant on the weather? A review of weather dependent generation in GB
The British have always felt a strong connection to the weather. A typical conversation in any part of the country will generally include a reference to either how: hot, cold, rainy, windy, sunny or grey the weather is! In the last 10 years, the weather has also begun to fuel our day-to-day lives as more weather dependent generation has been used in the fuel mix. This is making Britain greener and helping the nation reach its goal of NetZero by 2050. In this Insight Emma Tribe, our Analysis and Insight Delivery Lead, shows how Great Britain’s fuel mix is connected to the weather more than ever through an increase in weather dependent generation.
BSC Insight: Increasing costs for balancing the GB System
The Electricity System Operator (ESO) plays an essential role in balancing supply and demand using the Balancing Mechanism (BM). Matching supply and demand requires payments to be made between the ESO and participating consumers and generators. Consumers and generators submit prices for volumes of energy they can provide within a half-hour period (Settlement Period) to balance the system. In this Insight article, analyst Angus Fairbairn looks at balancing costs of ESO since 2015.