DCC is the central communications body licenced to provide the communications, data transfer and management required to support smart metering. It has a pivotal role in ensuring the successful rollout and ongoing operation of smart metering in the GB energy market. As a monopoly service provider, it is vital that appropriate controls are in place over its costs and that it is subject to an appropriate incentive regime that focuses on providing a good quality service to its customers, which include energy suppliers and network companies.
We are consulting on a range of Licence amendments to reduce the scale of revenue over-recovery by DCC of its customers and facilitate a return of historic over-collected revenue back to customers. More specifically, we are proposing:
1. A reduction to the over-recovery threshold of DCC’s Allowed Revenue, at which DCC must justify any over-collected revenue in its Price Control submission.
2. A Licence amendment to introduce a backstop measure by which all outstanding over-recovered revenue must be returned by DCC to its customers.
We are also proposing a change to the price index adjuster mechanism in the Licence. In particular, we are considering switching to Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) from the Retail Prices Index (RPI) as the inflation parameter used in the price index adjuster from 2024/25 until the end of the Licence. In addition to these proposals, we are also taking the opportunity to propose minor housekeeping changes to the Licence.
We want to hear from anyone interested in this consultation.