Metering Equipment Managers are currently subject to several different Codes of Practice, associated accreditation and audit regimes. These metering Codes of Practices will be simplified and consolidated within the REC as part of the Retail Code Consolidation. Ofgem confirmed in its recent decision on REC v1.1 that the Metering Equipment Managers would be Parties to the REC, allowing for more effective assurance over the metering arrangements, and ensuring that the Metering Equipment Managers would be fully enfranchised in the governance and decision-making of the REC. Over the coming months, we will engage with Metering Equipment Managers and the wider metering market to ensure that new, consolidated audit and accreditation regime reduces the burden upon Parties, whilst strengthening the assurance of those elements that can have a significant impact on subsequent retail process and consumer outcomes. We will do this in part through the early formation of the REC Metering Group, which will in due course have certain delegated responsibilities in accordance with the REC Change Management arrangements. We will look to these Subject Matter Experts to help inform our requirements of the replacement accreditation and audit regime and in turn the procurement of those services.
Metering plays an integral role in balancing and settlement as well as retail arrangements. It is therefore important that any change to the governance and assurance of metering continue to meet the requirements of these end-to-end processes.
We have worked with Elexon and Ofgem to define and analyse several options for the future governance of metering arrangements, seeking to find the optimum split between the BSC and REC. The scope of the REC metering arrangements will therefore depend on the outcome of the current Ofgem consultation on REC v2.0, but at this stage, we agree with Ofgem on the preferred option. Under this option, all provisions relating to Supplier Volume Allocation will be transferred to the REC, while provisions associated with Central Volume Allocation would be retained in the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC).
Whichever option Ofgem decides, we will continue to work collaboratively with Elexon to ensure that the BSC and REC performance assurance regimes complement each other in providing robust assurance over both the wholesale and retail electricity arrangements.
We will seek to identify opportunities for collaborative working in the gas arrangements. We have invited representatives of both the BSC and Uniform Network Code (UNC) assurance bodies to sit on the REC Performance Assurance Board.