MOSL sets its sights on concerted resolution of market issues

Resolving market issues is the focus of MOSL’s latest Quarterly market review, published today, which covers Q1 2018/19. The market operator said it was “time to move to a more planned approach that pulls work together in an agreed and prioritised way that enables focus on the most important areas and facilitates tracking of progress”.

To that end, MOSL reported on a number of actions including:

• Its June Market Improvement Strategy, which sets the strategic goals of reducing market friction and promoting effective competition.

• Its Market Performance Operating Plan which shows the planned approach to these outcomes for the next 18 months. The high priority outcomes are: enabling efficient settlement; enabling efficient switching; ensuring the playing field is level for retailers; and improving trading party experiences.

• Work to set up a Credit Committee to consider issues arising from Ofwat’s credit review, published in June.

• The Panel’s recommendation to Ofwat to delay final settlement runs for up to 12 months (change proposal CPW039). These runs are due to start in September, 16 months after trading began in April 2017. The extension is to allow for further data correction work to remedy incorrect data or submit meter reads, which the Panel felt would ultimately improve the customer experience – though opinion has been divided on the merits of a delay. Ofwat must decide on a way forward by the end of the month.

Elsewhere, the Quarterly report covered matters including MOSL’s performance and planned move to Southampton by the end of January 2019; latest switching data (156,150 SPIDs switched to the end of July, representing 5.8% of the 2.7 million supply points in the market and 12.6% at a consumption level); and wholesaler and retailer performance against Market Performance Standards.