Seeking views from industry on data requests received, prior to the Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service Change Board (BCB) making a determination on whether to release requested data.
Status
Status Closed - Outcome available
Issue Date 22 July 2022
Response Date 25 July 2022
Outcome
There were no negative responses to this consultation and so the proposal will be implemented effective from xxxxxxxx.
Original consultation
What is proposed?
This consultation seeks to remove current restrictions and publish all data items within the D0018 data flow under a BSC Open Data Licence. This will improve the efficiency with which this data is shared.
At present, the D0018 is available to all through a signed P30 Data Licence which is drafted for each individual organisation by Elexon’s Legal Team. This process is long-winded, restricts improvement to the publication of the data and contains restrictions.
Elexon supplies the data sets under these licensing arrangements free of charge after approval of BSC Panel Paper 321/10 Approval of Data Licenses and the Reclassification of P114, P30 and P315 Data Licenses due to P398 Open Data Requests at BSC Panel 321 in December 2021. The restrictions within the P30 Data Licence prevent the free sharing of the data to parties who do not hold the same licence, only allow the data to be used for the purposes connected with electricity trading in Great Britain and must not be used for commercial purposes. The only reason for these restrictions, as stated in the BSC Panel paper, is due to the cost to access the data. These need no longer apply as the licence is free.
What data will this impact?
Our assessment and recommended Classifications of the data items within the Open Data Request are summarised in the Reference Table below. Each individual data item has been assessed on the criteria defined within the Process for Requesting BSC Data Code Subsidiary Document.
Recommendation
Elexon’s recommendation is to publish this data as described.
Background to this proposal
On 26 June 2021, Elexon received an Open Data Request to openly publish the D0018 ‘Daily Profile Data Report’ data flow for a 14 month historic period. The D0018 provides profile data on each GSP Group enabling users of the data to estimate the consumption of different customers using Profile Classes.
The Open Data Request highlighted the current delivery of these data items through the Elexon Portal via a repository of flat files. The requester stated having the files available via API would decrease the administrative burden for data users. Classifying the data items as Open allows Elexon to work on improving the delivery of the datasets without being restricted by P30 licensing arrangements. This would also remove the administrative burden on processing requests.
Initial triage and classification
Elexon’s initial assessment of the requested data set
Elexon have assessed each data item on the four triage categories:
- Consumer Privacy – A person who can be identified from the information requested – either directly or indirectly in combination with other information
- Negative Consumer Impact – Likely to drive actions that will negatively impact consumers
- Security – Creates incremental, or exacerbates existing, security issues which cannot be mitigated via sensible security protocols such as physical site security, robust cyber security or buffer databases
- Commercial – Relates to the private administration of a business or, data not collected as part of an obligation by a regulated monopoly and would not have been originated or captured without the activity of the organisation
Elexon found no issues with publishing all the data items contained within the D0018 data flow when assessing against the four triaging categories. The data items relate to groups of meters and have no attribution to individual consumers or organisations.
The Open publication allows unrestricted improvements to be made to the delivery of the data sets as requested in the Open Data Request.
The different Classifications that can be applied to a dataset being processed through the Open Data Request service can be found in the Open Data Request are of the Open Data Request webpage. This also contains templates for licences of each classification. Please note, other than the BSC Open Data Licence, the other templates will be modified and be bespoke to the Data Request to which they apply.
Proposed mitigation
How Elexon proposes to mitigate the data to make it more open (if applicable) and what the subsequent triage and classification shall be
Elexon will apply no mitigation techniques to the raw data as there are no sensitivity issues contained in the data. Providing the file at the highest granularity and detail under a BSC Open Data Licence maximises the value of the data for the industry.
Benefits
What will be the benefits to BSC Parties, wider industry, and/or requester should the requested data be released
Elexon has considered the findings of the Electricity Data Taskforce: A Strategy for a Modern Digitalised Energy System when assessing the benefits of publishing data contained within an Open Data Request. When assessing the data items contained within Request DR498617:
Maximising the value of data
The provision of data items within a D0018 data file under a BSC Open Data Licence will allow users of the data to share, publish and manipulate the data knowing whilst fully understanding the restrictions on the data. Users of the data will be able to interpret and provide insight to the data, providing enhanced understanding throughout industry.
When Classified as Open, Elexon can improve the readability and understanding of the data as they too will be able to manipulate and publish the data in more readable, discoverable and searchable routes.
Visibility of Infrastructure and Assets
The data will provide more visibility on the assets within the non-half hourly market. It will also allow for users to freely report on the electricity usage from these assets based on Profile Class.
Visibility of Data
Classifying the data items within the D0018 file as Open will allow Elexon and other data users to republish the data in more visible locations and formats.
At the time of writing this Consultation, The Elexon has three other Open Data Requests relating to data items held within DR498617:
- DR238717: Domestic demand profiles for a whole year in GB Market (if possible broken down by housing typology)
- Whilst this request does not detail the D0018 data specifically, the Open publication of this data will provide more information on all demand profiles.
- DR111478: Most recent Load Profiles for residential electricity usage and different tariffs
- Elexon does not own data on different tariffs. Profiling data contained within the D0018 will contribute to the information on ‘Load Profiles’ in this request.
- One identical Open Data Request was submitted. To avoid duplication this request was not logged.
This demonstrates industry need for these datasets to be available as openly as possible.
Impacts
What will be the impacts to BSC Parties, wider industry, and/or requester should the requested data be released
Elexon have not identified any negative impacts to BSC Parties in the Open publication of data items within the D0018 flow.
Duplication and coupling
Whether Elexon is aware of similar data sets produced by themselves or other organisations
Elexon has assessed the data already available through it’s own publications and other industry providers. Elexon are not aware of any Open publications of the data items contained in DR498617.
Whether the data set could be coupled with other data sets (published by Elexon or others) for commercial, nefarious or other purposes
None of the data items pertain to individual consumers or organisations. Elexon do not perceive any issues with coupling this data.
Risk
What (if any) will be the risk to Settlement, Elexon and Industry members as applicable
Elexon do not perceive any risks to Settlement through the publication of this data.
Costs
What will be the cost for the Elexon in terms of time and money to create the data set. This will include BSC agent costs as well as any ongoing costs if applicable.
Elexon already provides these data sets to individual businesses under the P30 Licence agreement free of charge. Elexon have assessed the delivery of these data sets under an Open Licence which would be delivered at no significant cost through the established channels.
Currently this data is published through on the Elexon Portal, which requires an account and authentication. Elexon will publish these data items on the Elexon Portal on a monthly basis subject to the approval of the data items being classified as Open.
Periodicity and review period
Whether the data set is proposed to be re-published at given intervals, or as a one-off
Elexon will publish a month of daily D0018 files at the end of each month on an unrestricted area of the Elexon Portal.
Elexon will look to publishing these data sets outside of the Elexon Portal, in a data repository that does not require authentication. This will be explored subject to the data items are classified as Open.
How often the BCB should review whether the data set remains extant or whether it will be published in perpetuity to be reviewed by exception
The data sets contained within this Open Data Request will be published in perpetuity and the Elexon propose this dataset not be reviewed by the BCB unless requested via an Open Data Request.
