Effective management of D0095 exceptions can be a challenge for electricity suppliers due to the large number of exceptions which can occur and the many different root causes.
A failure to keep on top of them can indicate increased operational and financial risk, having efficient systems and processes in place to monitor and manage the backlog and the frequency of new exceptions is vital, especially as the size and inherent complexity of a suppliers portfolio grows.
What are D0095 Exceptions?
Electricity Suppliers are sent D0095 exceptions by the Non Half Hourly Data Aggregators (NHHDA), they contain details of irregularities in the data provided to the NHHDA by Non Half Hourly Data Collectors (NHHDC) and Supplier Meter Registration Agents (SMRA).
The exceptions are subdivided into specific issues (14 in total signified by a code E01, E02…E14) but all exceptions fall into two broad categories
- Consumption anomalies – these occur when there are gaps, overlaps or other problems in the consumption history for an MPAN
- Attribute anomalies – these occur when gaps or inconsistencies between attributes are detected
The D0095 user guide published by Elexon provides a great reference for the types of issues highlighted by D0095 exceptions and how to go about correcting them.
http://www.elexon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/d0095_user_guide_vol1_v3_0.pdf
http://www.elexon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/d0095_user_guide_vol2__v4_0.pdf
Supplier Obligations and Benefits
Under the BSC rules (BSC Section S 2.4.4) it is the responsibility of the supplier to act upon these notifications, and to keep a record of any action taken. This obligation can be very time consuming given the large volume of exceptions which can occur, many of the exceptions can be safely ignored for settlements purposes but the act of determining this can take a lot of time in itself, and even non-material exceptions can indicate problems or non compliance with other BSC obligations.
The resolution of D0095 exceptions is essential to ensure good quality data and this is one of the few places in the settlements process where suppliers are actively notified of problems ‘for free’.
By effectively managing and resolving D0095 exceptions, a supplier can
- Reduce exposure to risk in the settlement processes.
- Improve customer billing.
- Improve ability to forecast demand.
- Ultimately improve Gross Margin.
- Naturally improve PAB measures such as the percentage of energy settling on Actual Advances (AA), helping suppliers hit the 97% Elexon target at RF.
- Reduce the number of default EACs in use which can have an adverse impact on cashflow.
- Resolve relatively straightforward issues highlighted by D0095s and so avoid more complex and higher impact issues further down the line.
- Reduce its audit risk.
Approach
There are a number of different approaches to categorising and prioritising a backlog of D0095 Exceptions, the following are all considerations.
- Age : Issues which are approaching the RF boundary will generally result in crystalised errors which cannot be resolved or can only be addressed with ‘last resort’ methods such as Gross Volume Correction (GVC).
- Profile Class : The impact of exceptions on the accuracy of settlement and on performance levels is likely to be greater for higher consumption sites. Suppliers may want to address exceptions for metering systems in a higher profile class as a priority.
- Impact : D0095 information can be combined with other sources such as knowledge of High EAC/AA instances (either above the Elexon threshold or ideally much lower), exceptions may be preventing a more realistic (lower) consumption figure being entered into settlements.
- Type : Priority may be given where a high number of a particular type of exception have occurred, this may help identify and rectify the root causes to minimize the impact on the supplier.
- Materiality : Exceptions can be classified as material or immaterial for settlements purposes. Immaterial exceptions are still important information which can help avoid other problems but these might be assigned to different teams or given a different priority
Keeping Track
Effective auditing of decisions and actions taken is imperitive, a good tracking system can deliver the following benefits.
- An ability to demonstrate active management of exceptions to auditors.
- Tracking of problem areas, trends in the numbers of new exceptions and average resolution times
- A commonly occurring resolution might indicate a process flaw which can be resolved to prevent further exceptions.
- Once a corrective action has been identified, checks need to be made to ensure that the same action has not already been attempted, if it has failed once, it will fail again if repeated.
Aquarius D0095 Management Software
Aquarius D0095 management software from ENSEK is designed to make the resolution and tracking of D0095 exceptions intuitive and efficient. The toolset provides the following features
- Categorisation and Prioritisation such that effort is focused on the highest impact areas first,
- Consumption history and other supporting data is shown in a way which is easy to visualise where problems have occurred and a wealth of supporting information is available relating to the specific issues.
- Suggestions of possible causes and remedial action for each D0095 instance.
- An audit history is automatically captures any events which effect a given MPAN.
- A configurable workflow can be used to track issues from receipt to completion (e.g. Open, In Progress, Closed).
- Work assignment features allow exceptions to be assigned to teams or individuals all within the tool.
- Management Reports showing trends in instance levels and efficiency of resolution
The tool is completely integrated with ENSEKs other value added services, which can also ensure that the resultant settlement volumes match with the volumes billed to the customer, and also can predict the impact of resolving a backlog of D0095 exceptions upon the businesses cashflow helping to justify the business investment in keeping on top of their D0095 Exceptions.
