Design Authority Decision Log

Decision

Publication date

Industry sector

Supply and Retail Market

See an outline of the forward plan and decisions made by the Switching Programme Design Authority.

The Design Authority decides on products in workstreams such as:

  • Business process design (BPD)
  • Delivery strategy (DS)
  • Regulatory design (RD)
  • Commercial (CWS)

It considers issue papers (IP), operational requirements (OR), solution architecture (SA) and more. Click on the meeting dates below to access the product papers under consideration.

Decisions will be reflected in the Design Baseline 1 which we intend to publish in February 2017. Final decisions within the programme will be made following a consultation in summer 2017.

The summary papers have been updated to reflect subsequent consideration of the issue.

Meeting Product   Comments
30/03/16

BPD: Dual fuel switches

   Approved as baseline. The Design Authority unanimously approved the inclusion in the Central Registration Service (CRS) of a ‘one fail/all fail’ facility for dual fuel switches. Independent processing of dual fuel registration requests will also be permitted.
30/03/16 BPD: Switching Scenarios 1 & 2   Approved as baseline. The Design Authority unanimously agreed that it was satisfied with the approach adopted to develop the process maps and that they are appropriate to be baselined and subject to change control (as necessary).
27/04/16 BPD: Advance Registration - OR   Approved as baseline. The Design Authority unanimously agreed to a 28 day advance registration period and for functionality to be built in the new switching arrangements to amend this period in the light of operational experience. The DA also agreed that there should be one pending registration request on the CRS at any one time and that the CRS should reject further registration requests until the switch had taken place.
04/07/16 BPD: Stanstill (Lock out)  

Approved as baseline. The DA agreed that functionality for a configurable standstill period in the CRS, covering all meter points in the gas and electricity market, should be included in the design. The design should allow for different standstill periods for smart or traditional meters. A working assumption of 5 calendar days was appropriate for the purpose of the RFI. 
04/07/16 BPD: Switching scenarios 3-7   Approved as baseline. The Design Authority unanimously agreed that it was satisfied with the approach adopted to develop the process maps and that they are appropriate to be baselined and subject to change control (as necessary).
04/07/16 BPD: Objections   Approved as baseline. The DA agreed to include the following three options in the RFI:
  • Instant objections, using a new database of pre-loaded objections
  • Instant objections, where suppliers were required to provide an instant response to a request for information from the CRS
  • “Compressed window” objections, where a supplier had 5 hours to respond to a loss notification from the CRS

The DA agreed that a change of occupancy flag should override an objection relating to a previous tenant and noted that regulatory measures had the potential to ensure correct use of this flag.
11/08/16 BPD: Work Package 1 (processes incorporating approved policy decisions)   The Design Authority unanimously agreed that the previously approved policy decisions on dual fuel switches and advanced registrations had been accurately reflected in the updated Switching Scenario 1-7 process maps.
11/08/16 BPD: Agent Appointments   The Design Authority unanimously agreed the recommendations in the Agent Appointments paper:
  • The CRS should include a central repository of agent identities for a defined set of agents (shipper, MOP, MAP, DC, DA and the new role of Meter Communications Provider)
  • In gas the role of MAM should be unbundled to allow the separate identification of MOP and MAP (i.e. to harmonise gas and electricity)

The agent appointment process should continue to be managed by suppliers. They will have a choice on whether to use existing solutions or utilise notifications generated by the CRS: new workflow management facilities to support this activity should not be included in the scope of the programme.
11/08/16 BPD: Cooling Off   The Design Authority concluded that the core elements of option 5 were appropriate: 
  • Customer has choice on whether to switch to Supplier A (their previous supplier) or a Supplier C (a new supplier) if they cancel within the cooling off period
  • Customer can be billed by Supplier B for the time they are with them
  • Supplier A should offer to take the customer back on “equivalent terms” to the contract that they wold have been on had they not left.
  • Supplier B will provide a grace period to the customer after they have cancelled where the same tariff would be offered for a set period of time.

The DA agreed that further assessment was needed on the extent to which explicit rules on the face of the licence were needed to give effect to the proposal for a period of grace to be offered by Supplier B and ‘equivalent terms’ to be offered by Supplier A. In particular, this should be assessed against the policy of principle based regulation.
31/08/16

BPD: CRS and MIS user lifecycles

  

Approved as baseline. The DA agreed the approval and management arrangements for the CRS and MIS user lifecycles as being suitable for inclusion in Design Baseline 1. These lifecycles describe the process for approving a party to be a Market Intelligence Service (MIS) user or a Central Registration System (CRS) user. These processes will be developed into further detail in the Detailed Level Specification phase.
31/08/16 BPD: Solution architecture scoping options– SA  

Approved as baseline. The DA approved the inclusion of these four options in the RFI:

  • Switching database with middleware
  • Switching database and MIS database with middleware
  • Do minimum
  • Do nothing (counterfactual)

Individual components of each of these four options will be approved by DA to provide clarity for Design Baseline 1. The DA agreed that it is sensible to include a do nothing and do minimum option in line with HM Treasury’s guidance.
31/08/16 Erroneous transfers  

Rather than mandating the CIN test or requiring suppliers to provide a facility for customers to input their MPxNs, DA thought that suppliers should adopt a risk based approach to preventing ETs. DA agreed that an industry working group should be convened to explore whether a best practice framework for preventing ETs could be developed.

The DA agreed also with the specific recommendations in relation to rectifying erroneous transfers, including that the existing processes for reversing erroneous transfers, as set out in industry codes, should be referred to the MRA and SPAA executive committees for review to ensure they are fit for purpose.
28/09/16

Work Package 2

  

Approved as baseline. The Design Authority agreed that the previously approved policy decisions on cooling off, objections, standstill and agent appointments had been accurately reflected in the updated Switching Scenario 1-7 process maps.
28/09/16 Customer Differentiation in CRS   Approved as baseline. The DA agreed to baseline the recommendation made in the Need for Customer Differentiation in the policy paper. The DA agreed that a customer type indicator showing if the premises was being used for Domestic or Non-Domestic purposes should be included in the Switching Service. Industry have argued that they need an indicator and are willing to provide this information and pay for it. Therefore the position for Design Baseline 1 is to include a customer type indicator in the Switching Service.
28/09/16 Operational Requirements   Approved as baseline. DA agreed with the principle that the new switching system should be available 365x24x7 and that processing timetables should be expressed in calendar days, not working days.  DA noted that this has implications for legacy systems such as MPRS and UKLink. DA noted that further analysis is required on enquiry volumes and enquiry reasons as well as the costs of call handling before a decision is taken on which party(ies) should be responsible for providing helpdesk services.
28/09/16 Testing strategy   Approved as baseline. The DA unanimously agreed with the recommendations of the Testing Strategy papers. The DA agreed with the view within the Testing Strategy that testing should not be ‘squeezed’. This strategy will be revisited in the DLS phase to develop detailed roles and responsibilities for the testing phase.
28/09/16

Post implementation strategy

  

The DA agreed with the recommendations of the Post-Implementation Strategy paper. The DA agreed that there should be proactive management and intervention to resolve early life issues via a planned and well managed post-implementation support period. The DA approved the recommendation of the paper that, given the low appetite for catastrophic risk, the support mechanisms used in the Design Build and Test Phase should be held over into the post-implementation period, and that a proactive approach should be taken to intervening and resolving problems. In addition to revisiting this strategy in the Detailed Level Specification Phase, a detailed Post-implementation Management Plan should be developed for the programme in DLS documenting the detailed approach, roles and responsibilities and entry/exit criteria for this period.
27/10/16

Interaction with Smart Metering

 

 

Approved as baseline. DA approved the proposal that the switch should not be aborted if, for any reason, an update to the smart meter fails. DA also supported the recommendation that reconfiguration of smart meters should be undertaken between gate closure and midnight such that the new tariff for both electricity and gas is activated at midnight UTC.
27/10/16 Data Migration Strategy  

Approved as baseline. The DA unanimously agreed with the recommendations of the Data Migration Strategy paper that a detailed plan for the migration should be created in the DLS phase when there is greater clarity on the solution architecture and if migration is necessary, the migration itself should take place within the Design, Build and Test phase of the Switching programme.
27/10/16 System Integration Strategy  

Approved as baseline. The DA unanimously agreed with the recommendations of the System Integration Strategy paper that if a CRS is a component part of the Switching Programme, a system integration strategy should be developed, and an independent, specialist system integrator body should be appointed to plan, manage and undertake system integration roles and approaches in line with this strategy.
27/10/16 Transition Strategy  

Approved as baseline. The DA approved the recommendations of the Transition Strategy paper, that in the RFI three solution architecture options should be included:

  • For solution architecture option 1, ‘optimise existing systems’, a big bang approach is recommended;
  • For solution architecture option 2 with a centralised switching service; a big bang approach is recommended; and
  • For solution architecture option 3 with a centralised switching service and a market intelligence service, a phased implementation of the components of the design is recommended.
30/11/16 Governance & Assurance Strategy   Approved as baseline. The DA agreed with the approach presented.
30/11/16 Registration & Switching Governance Framework   Approved as baseline. The DA agreed with the approach presented.
30/11/16 Data Improvement Strategy   Approved as baseline. The DA agreed with the options presented and that they should be tested in the RFI.  A concern in relation to the potential value and effectiveness of remedy 4 (Smart Meter installation visits) was raised, however, this should be tested as part of the RFI process.
30/11/16 Reform Packages   Approved as baseline. The DA agreed the updated packages presented for inclusion in Design Baseline 1.