List of BSC Issues
These pages list all Issues published since 2011. Issues are raised where problems or potential improvements to the current arrangements have been identified, but it’s not known how best they should be resolved. Once raised Issues will be discussed by an Issue Group to consider possible solutions, requirements or to define the scope and issue further.
Issue 117 Incentivising Correction of Settlement Post-Theft
Energy Theft is a significant contributor to Settlement inaccuracies, directly linked to 018 SVA Risk: ‘Revenue Protection volumes are not settled Risk 18’ . The failure to correctly account for energy theft in Settlement can lead to erroneous or estimated data entering Settlement. It is estimated that the financial impact of unaddressed energy theft exceeds £1 billion annually creating substantial risks for both Suppliers and the wider industry.
Issue 116 Approving and calibrating Metering Systems for Settlement purposes
Code of Practice (CoP) 1: ‘The Metering of Circuits with a Rated Capacity Exceeding 100 MVA for
Settlement Purposes’ and CoP2: ‘The Metering of Circuits with a Rated Capacity not Exceeding 100
MVA for Settlement Purposes’ currently refer only to the inductive Current Transformers (CTs) and
Voltage Transformers (VTs) of the 61869 series of standards.
Issue 115 Barriers to Distributed Energy Resource Registration in the Balancing Mechanism
To prevent double-counting in the Balancing Mechanism (BM), Modification P344, requires Suppliers and Virtual Lead Parties (VLPs) to notify their Supplier Volume Allocation Agent (SVAA) of Meter System ID (MSID) Pairs (both Import and Export MSIDs). This creates challenges for Suppliers who may have different Import and Export Suppliers at a single site, leading to compliance issues. Additionally, the current AMSID registration process, with its three-stage manual validation, is inefficient for bulk updates and restrictive with regard to automation.
The proposed solution aims to streamline asset registration by using APIs and reducing manual steps for efficient updates. It also clarifies BSC rules on MSIDs to prevent double-counting, potentially allowing separate management of Import and Export MSIDs or giving a single BSP control over both.
Issue 114 Settlement of ABSVD for ancillary services delivered through independent aggregators
Applicable Balancing Services Volume Data (ABSVD) is provided by NGESO to Settlement, in order to ensure that Lead Parties’ Energy Imbalance positions are adjusted to reflect ancillary services that the assets within their BM Units provide to NGESO. The original ABSVD process (introduced by Modification Proposal P71) was intended to work with BM Units for which the Lead Party was both Balance Responsible Party (BRP, liable for Energy Imbalance) and Balancing Service Provider (BSP, providing ancillary services to NGESO). But, more recently, Modifications P344 and P354 have provided mechanisms for NGESO to submit ABSVD where the customer’s BSP (an independent aggregator) is different to their BRP (the electricity supplier).
Issue 113 Introduction of a Radio Teleswitch System (RTS) user charge
The contract between Elexon and the Energy Networks Association (ENA) currently passes the operational costs for the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) through the BSC as ‘BSC Costs.’ These costs amount to approximately £3.5 million, with around 1 million RTS devices (Radio Teleswitches and Radio Telemeters) in use. Under the existing arrangement, all BSC Trading Parties contribute to these costs based on their Funding Share.
However, Ofgem wishes to explore ways to incentivise Suppliers to promptly replace RTS meters. Ofgem has requested Elexon revisit a solution proposed in Issue 108. This solution aims to target RTS cost recovery specifically toward the relevant Suppliers. Additionally, considerations should be made regarding the reporting provided to impacted parties and publishing the relevant information in the interests of transparency.