Regulation and policy

  • Regulation and policy

    Australian Chart of the week | Too low for zero: I’m on a losing streak

    On the morning of 6 February 2020 AEMO issued market notice 73857. This was in response to the enduring islanding of the SA network informing the market that when SA demand falls under 800MW a number of generators will be constrained down to zero. This includes more than 500MW of...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Chart of the week | Bang for your buck: consumer cost of policies

    In this week's Chart of the Week, we consider the cost for consumers of decarbonisation policies, as Ofgem recently published its State of the Market 2019 Report on 3 October, providing a comprehensive overview of the state of competition in the retail and wholesale energy markets. The report also assessed how...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Zoning out: ESO aims to reform generator TNUoS

    Transmission network use of system (TNUoS) charges are partly based on a locational element, determined by which charging zone the network user is in. There are currently 27 zones for generators – in this Chart of the Week we look at how National Grid ESO is seeking to change that.

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Better late than never: smart rollout gets new targets

    Last week BEIS announced that the rollout of smart meters will continue past the original 2020 deadline to 2024. In this Chart of the Week, we will look at some of the implications of delays to the smart meter rollout and highlight four key industry programmes that may be affected. Government has described...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Fix Up, Look Smart – SMETS installation dates on the horizon

    Energy suppliers have a licence obligation to take all reasonable steps to install smart meters in homes and microbusinesses by the end of 2020. When installing meters, suppliers must comply with the Installation Validity Periods (IVPs) set out in the Smart Energy Code. They specify when meters complying with the...

  • Home supply and services

    Chart of the week | Beautiful butterfly? Ofgem plans out Retail Energy Code

    More clarity has been provided on how the Retail Energy Code (REC) is set to evolve over time to support the move to faster and more reliable switching. In this Chart of the Week, we look at Ofgem’s recent consultation on its plans for this new code

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | No limits: Plan unveiled for move to market-wide HHS

    The Design Working Group (DWG) has published its plan for how the electricity sector could move towards half-hourly settlement (HHS) for the whole market. The Transition Approach Plan seeks to keep the changes that different types of supply point will face separate from one another, in order to prevent delays. In this Chart...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Come what May – sector activity ramps up before summer

    May has seen a number of notable developments within the industry. By coincidence – or perhaps due to various parties not wanting their deadlines of “spring” to slip into “summer” – a number of workstreams hit significant milestones this month. In this week's Chart of the Week, we explore some of these major...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Keeping busy: Industry workstreams mount up

    Change has always been a constant of the energy industry but the number of major workstreams underway in recent months is extremely high. This week’s Chart of the Week analyses in more detail some of those facing market participants at the moment, including licensing reform,  BEIS and Ofgem's joint review of code governance, the...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Per capita: DCC forecast costs continue to grow

    The Data Communications Company (DCC) continues to see its costs grow despite pressure from the regulator. Ofgem issued its decision on the DCC’s 2017-18 price control on 27 February, revealing an upward trend in both DCC’s costs incurred and its forecast future allowed revenue.

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Faster switching or more reliable switching?

    For years Ofgem has sought to make switching faster and more reliable on the basis that doing so should encourage customers to change supplier. Its programme of reforms in this area are in an advanced state, working towards reliable next day switching by summer 2021 for domestic customers. The “faster”...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Run like the wind: the benefits of faster settlement

    The Design Working Group (DWG) has delivered its preferred Target Operating Model (TOM) for Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) to Ofgem, outlining how settlement arrangements could be reformed to bring benefits to industry and consumers. Settlement timescales will be reduced significantly, and here we look at the benefits that this could...

  • Low carbon generation

    Chart of the week | 999 – What’s your residual?

    In this week’s Chart of the Week we look at how Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review (TCR) proposes to charge network residual costs – those relating to the sunk costs of the network – through fixed or capacity charges. The rationale is that these costs should not be driving behaviour, as they are not...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Switching standards suggest significant supplier spend

    Having consulted on proposals to introduce new Guaranteed Standards (GS) to improve the switching process. Ofgem has decided to implement four of seven GS from Spring 2019: GS B requires suppliers to agree whether a switch is valid or erroneous within 20 working days of identification of a possible erroneous switchGS D requires whichever...

  • Regulation and policy

    Pixie Chart of the week | Pinpointing potential generation-dominated areas

    In a recent consultation on options for forward-looking charges, Ofgem proposed to introduce the concept of Generation and Demand Dominated Areas (GDAs and DDAs) in the Common Distribution Charging Methodology (CDCM). The CDCM governs the distribution charges that low- and higher-voltage (up to 22kV) connected users see and currently applies...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Ofgem broadens its approach to compliance

    The processes whereby Ofgem ensures licence compliance has evolved in recent years. The regulator has made efforts to increase the transparency around its enforcement action, shorten investigation times, and direct financial penalties for non-compliance to affected consumers. It is also apparent that Ofgem is flexing its regulatory muscles more than...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | SMETS1 end date slipping through BEIS’s fingers

    This week's Chart of the week looks at the delays to the end of SMETS1 installations in favour of the new SMETS2 smart meters. To ensure the greater benefits SMETS2 offers BEIS proposed an end date on SMETS1 installations. After which the installation of SMETS1 meters would no longer count...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Objection your honour – judicial review decision confirms Triad benefit cut

    Distributed generators will have greeted today’s dismissal by the High Court of a judicial review into Ofgem’s decision to change electricity transmission charging arrangements with dismay. Changes to transmission charging rules, introduced on 1 April 2018 following the implementation of the CUSC modification proposals (CMP) 264 and 265, has drastically...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | UIG UNC SOS

    Unidentified gas (UIG), continues to create issues for shippers and suppliers alike. Since the introduction of new gas settlement arrangements in June 2017, the UIG process has been problematic. The nub of the issue is that the initial allocation of UIG volumes can range between -15% and +25% of all...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | The Generation Game – SMETS1 installs could hit 16mn

    Today's Chart of the week discusses the latest research from Cornwall Insight which highlighted that 11.5mn smart meters have been installed. We also explore how the majority of them have been SMETS1 devices in domestic premises. In January the government moved back the SMETS1 end date, from July to October...

  • Regulation and policy

    Chart of the week | Reassuringly expensive

    In this week's Chart of the week looks at the rise third-party charges (TPCs). These have been on the rise with costs to the households almost doubled since the start of the decade. We also explore the reasons behind the general uptrend in TPCs. As well as this we forecast...