Interview of Robert Kerr, Director of Customer Services
Rob, what can you tell us more about Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement?
RK: Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement is a regulatory programme which will change the landscape of the Power industry. The programme will enable the use of half-hourly data across our entire Power portfolio, and it hopes to enable a faster & more accurate settlement process for Suppliers & Consumers. I have been at TotalEnergies since 2009 and it is potentially the largest change in our industry since I’ve been here.
What does this mean for TotalEnergies?
RK: For us at TotalEnergies, it means lots of things. Externally, we will have to move our non-half hourly portfolio to half hourly to reflect industry requirements. A change of measurement class will have to take place for approximately 80% of our portfolio. This will involve completing a change of measurement class internally. The amount of settlement profiles we currently have will be reduced to circa 66, for context we have about 100 thousand today. As well as this our settlement period in a post market-wide world will be 4 months long, again for context, today this is 14 months. Things such as profile class, SSC, TPR & LLFsh (how we purchase electricity), will become redundant. Lastly, as expected with any programme this size, there will be changes to our internal processes to ensure we are setup for success in the new world.
Which departments will be impacted by the programme and at what stage?
RK: The MHHS programme approach is split into phases:
- Phase 1 will primarily impact Industry Ops & WNS (Power teams), this first phase will also impact other operational teams such as Sales, as a result of changes to reporting (registrations/objections etc.).
- Phase 2 will impact my department again but will carry a wider business impact to departments and teams such as Sales, Central Services, Pricing & Procurement. But I also think it is fair to say Market-wide Half-Hourly will have a ripple effect on all functions of our business.
Are you able to provide a bit more information about the different phases you mentioned?
RK: Due to the scale of this programme, we have split the approach into phases. The scope of Phase 1 is to successfully onboard a piece of software called Automated Flow Management System (AFMS). AFMS is a piece of software which will enable us to communicate with the industry in the new world. There are other elements of this phase, such as migrating our portfolio onto the platform and ensuring our system estate integrates successfully with AFMS.
The scope of Phase 2 is ultimately achieving MHHS compliance, as set by OFGEM. As part of this, ESG will complete any necessary updates to AFMS on our behalf and their other clients. Internally, we will need to modify our processes in line with changes.
I have seen a company called ESG mentioned before. Who are they and what is their part in MHHS?
RK: Energy Service Group (ESG) are an energy software solutions company. We recently signed a contract with them as our third-party partner for the MHHS programme. AFMS, the system I mentioned earlier, is their product which we wish to utilise to achieve MHHS compliance.
When will each phase of the programme be going live?
RK: The target for Phase 1 (the move to AFMS), is to go live Q3 2024. Whilst the plan for Phase 2 (achieving MHHS compliance) is to be live in Q4 2026.
What are the benefits of the programme?
RK: There are many benefits as a result of MHHS. More specifically to Phase 1, AFMS will certainly be a big benefit, as once live, ESG will operate aspects of processes on our behalf - due to the managed service - allowing our teams to focus their time on other value-add takes, because of this I anticipate that we will see our customer service levels rise. As part of this partnership with ESG, going forward, future industry changes in the Power space will be owned by ESG. We will also retire certain systems such as FlowManager & DFB2.
Specifically for Phase 2, consumers will see increased accuracy in billing and fairer costs due to the increased frequency of reads. For TotalEnergies, again the increased frequency of reads will lead to healthier read reporting and performance. Greater Settlement accuracy. Greater accuracy when Pricing. Improved forecasting, resulting in lower wholesale costs. Improvements to systems for our users interacting with AFMS. For the industry, less demand on the grid. It is also important to note that this is a regulatory programme, so separately from benefits, if we do not achieve MHHS compliance, we will not be able to participate in the Power market.
Lastly Rob, how can people find out more about Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement?
RK: There are many ways to find out more about the programme, we have our MHHS programme team on the second floor who are happy to answer any questions, feel free to send any questions to: gp.redhill.mhhs@totalenergies.com, or alternatively feel free to have a look at our SharePoint page; Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement - Onboarding Homepage (sharepoint.com).
