Welcome to the latest edition of Inside RECCo! Despite August being a popular month for summer holidays, we have been keeping busy at RECCo. We are excited to introduce our new team member, Leanne Barton, who has joined us as Interim HR, People and Culture Manager to cover maternity leave. During a recent interview, Leanne shared what drew her to RECCo and how she’d like to shape the organisation during her time here. She also praised our recruitment process, which she found clear, efficient, and informative. To learn more about our streamlined recruitment process, please see page 4. If you're interested in reading Leanne's full interview, you can find it here.
This month, we have continued to oversee the resolution of the major Priority 1 incident that occurred within the Central Switching Service (CSS) on 6th July 2023. The issue impacted 193,000 supplier switches for gas and electricity supply customers, and the implications have been felt across our stakeholder community. DCC has updated CSS with the required information and sent the missing switch messages and new registration messages to market participants. This activity was completed by the 8th of August 2023, in line with DCC’s planned timeframe. Following closure of the incident, the DCC is required by the REC to deliver a post-incident review to the REC Performance Assurance Board (‘PAB’). However, recognising the significant impact caused by this incident, RECCo has also commenced our own supplementary independent and comprehensive review to ensure that all the relevant lessons are learned to prevent a repeat of this incident, that any changes and improvements are implemented, and that the appropriate actions and sanctions are allocated to the appropriate parties. You can read the latest update on page 3. Regular daily updates are also still available via the REC Portal.
Earlier in August, ITV reported that thousands of UK businesses are considering legal action over deals arranged by energy brokers, highlighting the importance of our work to ensure a fairer energy market. On page 5, we discuss our plans to introduce a Code of Practice (CoP) and further work to stop the misuse of the Change of Tenancy flag and objections process. Importantly, we’re currently inviting interested parties to provide feedback on the CoP by the 15th of September.
A report by end-of-life charity Marie Curie highlighted the impact of rising energy costs on those living with a terminal illness, particularly those reliant on medical devices they use at home. It provides further evidence that more targeted support should be provided to those energy users, as highlighted in our paper: “How can we better support medical equipment users with their electricity costs?” We discuss the issue on page 6 of this newsletter.
Continuing with our focus on consumer-impacting issues, we’re reflecting on some of the events we’ve held over the past few months. On the 5th of July 2023, we hosted an event at Capgemini’s Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE), which asked, “How can we help consumers struggling to pay their energy bills?” The event aimed to collectively identify how we can address consumer issues, including those arising from energy affordability, energy consumption and having a lower income to put towards energy bills. As RECCo’s Consumer Advocate, Sue Jackson, said on the day, this issue is vital, and we need to “keep talking to people about this; we can’t just stop; we need to keep it going.” Read a summary of the event on page 6 and learn how to get involved.
We remain committed to the quality delivery of our core services, now and into the future. On page 5, you can read the outputs from our REC Services Development workshops, where we gathered feedback that will help us improve the Code Manager and Energy Enquiry services.
Finally, please turn to page 7 to find a list of our upcoming events. This includes our data and digitalisation webinar on the 26th of September. Following the publication of our paper on Open Data earlier this month, this event will provide an overview of our strategy in this area and the opportunity to discuss the benefits of our approach for industry. Thank you again for reading, and as always, we appreciate your feedback and welcome any comments to communications@retailenergycode.co.uk
