RECCo Strategy and Forward Work Plan
The Board was presented with a recap of the approach adopted for RECCo’s Forward Work Plan (FWP) for the period 2024-2027.
This followed detailed discussions at the Board Strategy Day in September 2023 with the focus of the FWP is the delivery of ‘Must have’ initiatives. The latter includes those which RECCo is required to undertake either as a REC requirement, company operational requirement such as a service contract renewal dates, or an emerging regulatory requirement. RECCo’s primary focus for 2024, then, is improving core activities and the experiences and interactions of stakeholders with the REC.
The Board was informed that bilateral meetings had been undertaken across the stakeholder community to test the areas of focus with positive feedback being received. Stakeholders were pleased to hear that RECCo’s focus will be improving core services and delivery. However, mandated workstreams were also well understood and accepted as RECCo deliverables.
The FWP is published on 15th January for stakeholder consultation and RECCo will be hosting a webinar to discuss key areas of the document; this will be held on Tuesday, 23rd January at 10am.
RECCo Review of P1 Switching Incident
The Board were provided with an update on RECCo’s review of the P1 Switching Incident
Following the formal closure of the P1 Switching Incident in September 2023, RECCo completed a comprehensive post-incident review. Working with DCC, the Code Manager, and a wide representation of industry stakeholders, RECCo has produced a detailed list of ‘lessons learned’ and related actions to prevent a recurrence of the incident, and implementation of best practice incident management in the future.
The review contained five overarching recommendations and twenty-four detailed actions that will be tracked to completion across 2024. The Board was informed that the review was shared with the REC Performance Assurance Board (PAB) in November 2023.
The Board approved the report and recommendations and agreed the report is sent to Ofgem for their consideration in relation to any other required actions they deem appropriate. RECCo will be publishing the full report for stakeholders in the New Year.
Evolution of REC Services – Code Manager and Enquiry Services
The Board was presented with the outcome of the development of Business Cases on the future of the Code Manager and Enquiry Services.
The Business Cases included options for continuation of the services following the end of the initial contract period and terms. During the meeting, the Board was presented with a proposed procurement strategy and approved the recommended approaches which will be presented in RECCo’s Forward Work Plan (FWP) for the period 2024-2027.
Energy Theft Reduction Programme
A deep dive into the progress of RECCo’s Energy Theft Reduction Programme was presented to the Board.
This included nine initiatives which have already been delivered, including the development of the Theft Estimation Methodology (TEM), the creation of the Energy Theft Reduction Expert Group (ETREG) and Energy Forum, a 12-month social media monitoring trial, and an end-to-end review of energy theft processes which included production of a recommendations report for action.
Details of thirteen initiatives which are currently in progress were also presented. This included details of the priority areas, what will be delivered, and when the work will be completed. Examples include, investigating the use of smart meter alerts in detecting energy theft, reviewing the Stay Energy Safe marketing campaigns and raising public awareness of energy theft and its safety implications, and conducting a feasibility study into a REC funded dedicated police unit.
