Operational Performance
The Board was informed that Code Manager service providers continue to meet their monthly KPI’s.
We also heard that various steps are being taken to Improve service delivery, including:
- Enhancements to the Change and Release process, with a view to streamlining the Change pipeline.
- The Operational Account Manager (OAM) service has been extended to non-REC party users, with further resources planned.
- A short-term plan to enhance Code Manager performance has been deployed.
- A short term ‘Deep Dive’ project has been established to investigate possible enhancements to the Electricity Enquiry Service (EES) platforms and processes.
- RECCo is working with DCC to build a ‘pipeline’ of required BAU activity as we move past the P1 incident.
DCC P1 incident
The Board was told that the P1 incident has been closed. DCC have released an incident report and a lessons learnt document.
RECCo is working with markets participants, DCC and the Code Manager to produce a wide-ranging review of the incident and understand the performance of DCC from a code compliance perspective, along with focus on the lessons that should be learnt around the impacts on market participants’ time, resource and finances, as well as the end user consequences. The review will contain proposed remedial actions and future risk mitigations for consideration by the PAB and RECCo Board.
Financial Matters
Financial half-year report
The Board noted that RECCo manages its finances proactively and adopts best practice financial management practices through reviewing performance against Budget on a monthly basis, fully understanding the drivers for any variances, taking action to reverse any negative variances alongside regularly reviewing our full year expected outturn.
For the first 6 months of the current financial year our costs are tracking materially below budget. This reflects our approach to securing value for money, incurring costs only when required and the impact of delivery of budget and forward work plan commitments through internal resource wherever possible thereby negating the requirement for more expensive external resource. Our full year forecasts show an expected end of year underspend against budget, and we will return any such underspend as a rebate against next year’s charges in accordance with the requirements of the REC.
Data & Digital Initiatives
The Board was able to review and receive a demonstration of ‘ERIN’, the Energy Resource Information Network built using ChatGPT for the Retail Energy Code.
The Beta version was demoed to the Board with planning begun to bring the version live for public use. Based on a Q&A facility driven by generative AI, this has the potential to help parties understand the REC and their obligations better. Once released for public use, ERIN will be adapted based on usage and feedback from the parties.
RECCo Strategy & Forward Work Plan
Jon Dixon (JD) summarised for the Board the output of the September Strategy Day, including the decisions relating to RECCo’s response to the DCC licence review and next steps on the data and digitalisation strategy; both of which have involve regular contact with Ofgem and have dependencies upon Ofgem’s own work and future decisions.
JD also confirmed that we are on track to publish the Forward Work Plan on schedule, and that 1:1 stakeholder engagement on its content was underway. The Board was informed that, so far, there had been general endorsement of the approach to prioritising service improvements, and that no wholly new or unexpected issues had arisen.
Stakeholder Engagement Events
An update was provided for the Board on RECCo’s ongoing stakeholder engagement efforts, which play a pivotal role in delivering our Forward Work Plan for 2023-2026. This includes a number of industry webinars which have been scheduled in the upcoming weeks and the launch of RECCo’s annual stakeholder satisfaction survey.
An interactive session, which focused on RECCo’s Data and Digitalisation strategy, took place on 26th September. The event provided a platform for valuable discussions and insights from industry on what RECCo’s priority focus should be for implementing its data and digitalisation vision, including the user experience of REC Services, opening up data secure and introducing an API Gateway to REC Services. The Board was pleased learn of the large and diverse stakeholder engagement with this successful event.
In the pipeline, the Board learned that RECCo would be holding a ‘Call to Action’ event on Consumer Vulnerability scheduled for 17th October, emphasising our commitment to addressing important industry issues with a range of external industry speakers supporting us. The event has sine been held with positive feedback from participants on the usefulness of the session and actions to take forward in collaborating on progressing consumer initiates discussed during the session.
On 24th October, RECCo will also be hosting a Change of Tenancy Rules Webinar, targeting the non-domestic energy market. This webinar will provide a unique opportunity for collaboration and knowledge sharing among industry experts in addressing known issues in this area.
The Board also received an update on the progress of RECCo’s Annual Stakeholder Satisfaction Survey. The survey sets to launch in mid-October and seeks to collect invaluable feedback on stakeholders’ interactions with REC Services over the past 12 months. This feedback will be instrumental in shaping the priorities for improvements as we move toward publishing our Forward Work Plan for 2024-2027.
