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The clock is ticking on transformation to a flexible electricity system
1/10/2025
8 min read
Feature
The UK’s electricity sector is working towards a complete transformation of the settlement process in the back office. The outcome could offer radically improved consumer propositions from next year, writes Janet Wood.
Every week, members of the UK electricity sector receive an email called ‘The Clock’. The name is designed to remind its users of the urgency of its subject matter. Given a market transformation that should take some longstanding costs out of electricity supply, help manage grid fluctuations, and allow new and existing electricity suppliers to offer tariffs that could help consumers save money and bring in a more flexible and responsive energy system.
The programme will provide market-wide half-hourly settlement (MHHS) for financial transactions and represents a complete re-build of the electricity system back office, from data transfer to customer billing. The change is fundamental and is on a strict schedule as The Clock reminds participants that they will see domestic customers transferred over the next 18 months.
Responsibility for keeping the MHHS on schedule lies with settlements company Elexon, as implementation manager (Elexon has also become the market facilitator for domestic flexibility). Chief Executive Peter Stanley says it is more than an IT project: ‘This is a wholesale operating model change for the industry.’