2018 Monitoring reports

We reviewed the outcomes of implementing new wholesale settlement and prudential security arrangements. We found that: costs have become less volatile, retail costs have fallen and become less volatile while retail competition has continued to strengthen, credit risk for generators has fallen and overall risk remains low, costs faced by direct purchasers have not changed, excess has decreased, reducing costs incurred unnecessarily, some prudential security types are now used more often, and there are positive benefits such as substantial savings.

We looked at opinion across third party providers to see how retailers view and administer data provision for the Retail Data Project (RDP). The volume of requests for consumption data were widely spread across the retailers interviewed. Many already had some systems in place to process requests for consumption data. Less than half had automated systems to deal with consumption data requests from agents, and only one had an automated procedure to deal with requests for tariff data from a third party provider. Cost was a key barrier to setting up new systems to deal with data requests, particularly for smaller retailers. Delays in provision of data declined as all parties learnt what was required and the most efficient way to manage requests on both sides. To improve the efficiency and standardisation of data provision, some called on us to educate agents and consumers.

In 2014 we introduced a dispatchable demand scheme. In this review, we consider that the scheme so far is unlikely to have accrued benefits over and above its implementation costs. It would be unlikely to do so without further refinement to encourage more participation in the future. One reason for this is low participation.