MRASCo
Forward Work Plan
2014 - 2015
Q4 Update
April 2015
MRASCo Work Plan Review 2014/2015
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Contents
1.
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3
2.
Summary of Q4 Update .................................................................................................................. 3
3.
DECC and Ofgem Driven Change..................................................................................................... 4
3.1 Smarter Markets ............................................................................................................................. 4
3.2 Code Governance Review ............................................................................................................... 4
3.3 Green Deal....................................................................................................................................... 5
4.
MRA Self Governance ..................................................................................................................... 6
4.1 MRASCo Model Review ................................................................................................................... 6
4.2 Prepayment Allocation process ...................................................................................................... 6
4.3 MRA Change Management ............................................................................................................. 7
5.
Other MRA Activities....................................................................................................................... 7
5.1 Security Expert Group ..................................................................................................................... 7
5.2 Data Quality Working Group ........................................................................................................... 8
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1. Introduction
This Forward Work Plan (FWP) is an annual single seminal document that provides MRA Parties with
an overview of the activities and challenges with the management of the MRA.
The FWP 2014/2015 is set against the backdrop of unprecedented change across the energy
markets, including changes to Government policy surrounding the Green Deal and Smarter Markets.
The key objectives of the FWP are to provide:
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A high level overview of activity under the formal meetings of the MRA;
A summary roundup of the key MRA projects either anticipated or underway; and
Key milestones for industry change that potentially impact on the MRA.
On a quarterly basis, progress reports of MRA activities contained within the annual FWP will be
further published as part of a monitoring process of the MRASCo strategic objectives.
2. Summary of Q4 Update
In the final Quarter of the 2014/2015 financial year, MRASCo continued to progress with work in
response to DECC and Ofgem driven changes, in addition to MRA Self Governance workstreams.
Under the Smarter Markets workstream, MRASCo has been monitoring progression under the Smart
Energy Code (SEC) where two new versions have been designated, with the latest version, 4.2 being
designated on 18th March 2015. The go-live date of live Data Communications Company (DCC)
operations has also been approved by the Secretary of State to be moved from December 2015 to
April 2016.
The Code Review Expert Group (CREG) has raised five Change proposals into the MRA Change
Process at their March meeting. This sees amendments to the MRA Development Board (MDB)
constitution through changes to MAP17 1and the MRA. These changes seek to increase small
Supplier representation from one seat to two, as well as enabling Distribution Businesses to represent
their own business rather than on a constituency basis, and therefore, will also extend the number of
Distribution seats from four to seven.
The Green Deal Central Charge (GDCC) successfully deployed R08.0 release, and all GDCC users
were also required to sign new Access Agreements following minor changes to the Agreement. An
independent auditor has also undertaken an assessment of the GDCC Service Level Compliance
Statements, with the findings being published on the MRASCo website.
The Business Process Model review team have completed the Gap Analysis of the implemented
Change Proposals for the End-to-End diagrams and Golden Threads. The project now looks to
update the MRASCo Model using the modelling tool Casewise, which is due to begin in Q1 2015/
2016.
The Prepayment Allocation Expert Group (PAPEG) has raised a number of Change Proposals to
enhance the prepayment allocation process. The group continues to meet to further develop solutions
to aid the allocation of prepayment transactions.
The MRA Change Process has seen eleven Change Proposals being voted on in Q4 2014/2015. The
February 2015 release saw changes implemented in the following areas; MRA Agreed Procedures
(MAP), the MRA, the Working Practice Product Set and the Green Deal Access Agreement.
All activities undertaken by MRASCo continue to progress well and the development during Q4 have
been detailed below.
1
MAP17 – Issue Resolution and Change Management
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3. DECC and Ofgem Driven Change
3.1
Smarter Markets
There have been two further versions of the SEC within this quarter, version 4.1 on 26th January 2015
and version 4.2 was designated on 18th March 2015. The most recent version incorporates
amendments to Party and Registration Data Providers (RDP) Signifiers, Party and User and RDP
Identifiers following direction by the Secretary of State pursuant to Section 88(1) of the Energy Act
2008.
In addition to these versions, DECC released a number of consultations and Government responses
within this quarter in advance of purdah.
The March 2015 Government Response included the outcomes to previous SEC consultations from
June 2014, November 2014 and January 2015. The response concluded on a number of areas such
as Smart Metering Key Infrastructure, DCC Key Infrastructure and Infrastructure Key Infrastructure,
further security requirements, testing and technical arrangements.
Other consultations which were released include:
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Smart Metering Rollout Strategy (published 24th March 2015);
Home Area Network Solutions (published 24th March 2015);
Non-Domestic Smart Metering: Opt-out and Advanced Metering (published 24th March 2015);
and
New SEC Content (published 26th March 2015).
The DCC released its response to the DCC Plan and Implementation Milestones consultation
following Secretary of State approval, which moved the date of live DCC operations from December
2015 to April 2016 with up to six months contingency being available.
Additionally a number of the testing phase consultations have been released by the DCC, which will
help Parties understand the stages and obligations including the System Integration Test (SIT)
Approach document, SMKI and Repository Testing (SRT) Approach document. Further
documentation is expected within the next financial year.
MRASCo continues to monitor the progress of the DECC and DCC consultations and responses for
impacts on the MRA and its products.
3.2
Code Governance Review
The Code Review Expert Group (CREG) has been active in developing the remaining Stage 3
workstreams over Q4 2014/2015. In January 2015, CREG reviewed responses to the review of the
MRA Development Board (MDB) constitution. Based on consultation responses, CREG agreed at it’s
March meeting, to raise five Change Proposals to:

Increase the number of smaller Supplier seats to two; and

To enable Distribution Businesses to represent their own businesses rather than on a
constituency basis, extending the number of seats from four to seven.
The changes have been raised into the MRA Change Process in Q1 2015/2016.
As part of the closing of CREG Stage 3, Ofgem released a statutory consultation proposing changes
to the Standard Distribution licence to introduce MRA Objectives, following CREG’s past involvement.
The consultation closed on the 27th March 2015 and Gemserv are awaiting the outcome.
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Finally, CREG have been undertaking a CREG Stage 2 Post Implementation Review, which saw
change templates introduced in June 2014 being reviewed alongside the materiality testing process
following observations raised by Ofgem. In February 2015, CREG considered options to improve the
ways in which materiality under the MRA operates. Subsequently, the Expert Group recommended for
the MRA Executive Committee to provide a steer as to the progression of the workstream, as it was
felt that the current processes surrounding materiality were fit for purpose. MEC are to be presented
with a summary of discussions to date, in Q1 2015/2016.
3.3
Green Deal
Following the implementation of minor changes to the GDCC Access Agreement in January 2015, all
GDCC Users were required to renew their access to the GDCC through signing a new Agreement. All
GDCC Users apart from two Parties renewed access for a further two years. This allows MRASCo to
manage access to the GDCC more efficiently with a continuous single renewal date in the future for
the majority of users.
The Green Deal has seen five Change Proposals raised through the MRA Change Process in Q4
2014/2015. These Change Proposals will be voted on by MDB in Q1 2015/16.
GDCC Release R08.0 was released on 5th March 2015 as part of this release parties outside the
obligatory timescales to send Data Flows to the GDCC will be sent automatically generated emails to
advise that the GDCC is awaiting a response to a Data Flow. To date, no changes have been agreed
for implementation into GDCC Release R09.0 (which will go live on 25 th June 2015).
The GDCC Central Administration Service (CAS) have been given the go ahead to further develop
enhancements to GDCC processes by MEC in Q4. These consisted of:

Introducing training sessions on the functionality of the GDCC for GDCC Users;
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Developing assurance-style assessment processes for new Green Deal Licensees entering
the GDCC; and
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Producing a communication and engagement action plan to allow the GDCC CAS to coordinate issue resolution.
An assessment of the GDCC Service Level Compliance Statements has been completed by an
independent auditor for the calendar year of 2014. These statements are issued on a quarterly basis
and summarise the availability of the GDCC, in line with the obligations set out in the GDCC Access
Agreement. The auditor’s report has been issued on the MRASCo website, so that any party can
access the assessment.
The MRA and the GDAA code administrators continue to work together to ensure effective
communication between the two codes. MRASCo has delivered the latest GDCC Quarterly Supplier
Verification reports to the GDAA Panel, which contains data on the performance of Suppliers and
Green Deal Parties measured against their obligations set out in the GDAA. This reporting information
will be used to assess the performance reporting process, which may result in future consequential
changes to the GDCC, the MRA and MAP182.
2
MAP18 – Procedure for the GDCC
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4. MRA Self Governance
4.1
MRASCo Model Review
At the start of 2014/2015, MEC commissioned a project to update the MRASCo Business Process
Model. The Business Process Model Review Group (BPMRG) aims to update the process diagrams
to include any changes which were implemented until May 2014, with a further exercise to follow with
the changes made since May 2014.
In Q4, the BPM Review Team completed the Gap Analysis of the implemented industry changes for
End-to-End diagrams and Golden Threads. In total, approximately 300 Change Proposals underwent
the sorting process to ascertain how many changes would require a comprehensive Gap Analysis. Of
these, 187 Change Proposals were identified to impact the MRASCo Model, which contains 69 Endto-End diagrams and 10 Golden Threads.
BPMRG reviewed and agreed the final Gap Analysis report in March 2015. The project will now move
towards making the changes to the MRASCo Model identified in Phase One, using the Modelling Tool
Casewise, starting in Q1 2015/2016.
4.2
Prepayment Allocation process
The Prepayment Allocation process Expert Group (PAPEG) have been developing solutions for the
redistribution of unallocated prepayment transactions and enhancing of the current allocation process,
outlined in the MRA Agreed Procedure (MAP) 14 3.
During Q4, PAPEG discussed the remaining Algorithms that were developed for the purpose of the
targeted matching trial. The final Algorithm to be reviewed, Algorithm 5, moves the date of a
transaction to see if ECOES can match the Meter Serial Number and therefore find the Supplier to
whom the transaction should be allocated. PAPEG agreed to raise two Change Proposals, one to
implement the Algorithm as a permanent feature and the other to generate a report available to
Suppliers.
PAPEG reviewed D0312 rejections as a part of the review of the end-to-end allocation process, which
resulted in a number of initiatives being introduced to reduce the number of rejected D0312’s and
subsequently improve the data quality in ECOES. PAPEG considered options for mandating Meter
Operators (MOps) to work the D0312 rejection reports, concluding that a new clause in MAP15
should be introduced to mandate MOps to resolve rejected D0312’s contained within the report. A
report was also recommended to be issued to Suppliers indicating the number of resubmissions
which have not occurred within the mandatory window.
Whilst discussing the Multiple Supplier Reports, PAPEG noted the issues being caused in the
allocation process by disconnected MPANs being associated to prepayment Meter Serial Numbers
and agreed to review remedial options. PAPEG also noted that reviewing the Transaction Routing
Flag (TRF) in ECOES would be beneficial to determine whether the flag's functionality could be
improved to better facilitate the allocation process. The ability to set the TRF on a period of a
Supplier’s registration and central processing are options that will be considered in Q1 2015/2016.
Finally, PAPEG have been reviewing the transparency of the XREF database in order to have an
understanding as to whether or not the database should remain part of the allocation process.
Analysis has been carried out and reviewed by the Group, which informed the development of a
number of options to reduce the reliance on XREF and the future of the database. Of the options to
reduce the reliance on XREF, PAPEG agreed to further investigate three, which were:
3
MAP14 – Procedure for the Allocation of PPM Payments Transacted Against an Incorrect Device
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Developing the redirected report detailing a transactions routing method;
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A reconciliation exercise between Meter Operator systems and ECOES to align the data; and
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Exploring the costs associated with producing a centralised view of XREF being provided.
PAPEG concluded that XREF should be removed from the allocation process with a long lead-time
whilst processes or procedures to reduce the reliance on the database are in place.
4.3
MRA Change Management
In Q4, the MRA Development Board (MDB) has voted upon 11 Change Proposals (CPs) between
January and March 2015. Among these Change Proposals, there were several updates to the Asset
Condition Codes and Reports following a comprehensive end-to-end review of the D0126 and D0135
Data Flows by both MDB and the Issue Resolution Expert Group (IREG).
MDB also considered and agreed various changes to the Non Domestic Customer (NDC) process in
MAP15, as well as updates to MAP21 concerning the references to DUoS Agreement.
The inclusion of the new Measurement Classes to support the implementation of BSC Modification
Proposal P300 were also discussed by MDB, and a number of changes were progressed to allow for
updates to the DTC.
Within the 26th February 2015 Release, 5 MRA Agreed Procedures (MAPs) were updated, as well as
the Master Registration Agreement, Working Practice Product Set (WPPS) and Green Deal Central
Charge (GDCC) Access Agreement. The release included 9 CPs that had been accepted at MDB. Of
these, one CP sought to remove the Disconnections Working Practices following the earlier
introduction of MAP21.
IREG have undertaken two reviews of processes in Q4 and also work progressed under the Service
Termination Equipment Information and Populating the Agreed Supply Capacity in Electricity Central
Online Enquiry Service (ECOES) workstreams. IREG recommended that both of the solutions under
these workstreams are pursued under the Distribution Connection and Use of System Agreement
(DCUSA) to understand commercial arrangements before the technical solution is finalised.
The first of the process reviews looked at Asset condition Reporting and resulted in updating two
Change Proposals and being entered into the MRA Change Process.
The second review was on requesting additional and new MPANs. A Statement of Operation Working
Practice is going to be drafted in Q1 2015/2016.
5. Other MRA Activities
5.1
Security Expert Group
The Security Expert Group was initiated by the MRA Executive Committee (MEC) in February 2015.
The objective under this group is to review MRA systems and to review and investigate any process
enhancements which may be deemed necessary to ensure optimal security of the data held within
MRA systems.
MEC agreed to undertake an independent Risk Assessment which will look at the impact of any event
on the reputation, legal/regulatory obligations and financial impacts on MRA Systems.
The eight (8) key principles of the Data Protection Act have been agreed by SEG to act as a starting
point for identifying any system/process weaknesses.
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In Q4, SEG agreed a number of workstreams to progress in order to meet its Terms of Reference:

Review the ECOES user audit in terms of the applicability and scope;
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Review the ECOES Consolidated Monthly report; and

Review the governance surrounding third party users, including the viability of Third Party
Intermediaries (TPIs) being given direct access to ECOES.
SEG is expected to come to a close in August 2015, subject to the completion of the remaining
workstreams and MECs approval of a SEG Closure Report.
5.2
Data Quality Working Group
The Data Quality initiative was instigated by Ofgem to review the quality of data held by the industry
with regards to improving the customer registration process.
The electricity Data Quality Working Group review team liaised with Ofgem in Q4 2014/2015 to
discuss some feedback received provided on the reports published in December 2014. The feedback
consisted of a number of questions and clarifications, which were considered at a meeting on 9 th
February 2015, as well as how Ofgem may progress the recommendations of the report. The points
raised were summarised in a clarification report and sent to Ofgem following the meeting.
Ofgem responded to both industry data quality reports by writing to the code administrators on 5 th
March 2015. The notification referred to a draft version of a Terms of Reference (ToR) for a Dual Fuel
Address Data Quality Working Group, which would take forward a number of the recommendations
made by the reports. MRASCo liaised with the chair of the gas Data Quality Working Group to ensure
expectations of the governance and scope of the proposed joint working group were aligned.
The chairs of the respective gas and electricity working groups have organised a meeting to discuss
the draft ToR of Ofgem and work on this draft ToR will continue in the next year, in order to assist in
providing Ofgem with the industry’s feedback on the draft ToR. This will likely consist of a meeting
between Ofgem and representatives from both gas and electricity codes to discuss their continued
sponsorship and how they can best contribute to the Dual Fuel Address Data Quality Working Group.
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