MOSL has announced the winners of the first round of the Market Improvement Fund which was opened to applications in September. The fund offered individuals or groups up to £150k from a £1m fund to fund projects that improve the non-household market.

MOSL received twelve bids in total, equalling £1.2 million in requested funding. The bids varied from smart technology installation and data cleansing to water efficiency initiatives. Bidders were looking to raise amounts from £20k to the maximum £150k.

All bids were reviewed for eligibility and scored by the independent Selection Committee and subsequently approved by the Panel. The Selection Committee have awarded over £700k in total to the following seven successful bids:

Leveraging existing underground rainwater assets for large-scale reductions in potable water use

Applicant: Pennon Water Services

This project aims to reduce potable water use from a sample of business customers by as much as 25 per cent through intelligent reuse of rainwater held in underground attenuation tanks. Working with partners SDS Ltd, the project will install prototype rainwater management systems to tanks to divert non-potable water for business use. Lessons from this pilot could be applied to thousands of business locations across the UK where such tanks are already installed underground.

Project Looking Glass

Applicant: OccuTrace Ltd

Sponsor: MOSL

By visiting a cross-section of Long Unread Meters (LUMs) across England, this project aims to provide MOSL with accurate data on the root causes of LUMs to establish the level of accuracy currently in the market. This knowledge could help trading parties better understand why meters are not being read across the country and what they can do about it.

Retailer Wholesaler Group (RWG) branding and design

Applicant: RWG

Sponsor: South West Water

The project aims to increase readership of RWG-produced good practice guides, customer guidance and associated documents by establishing clear brand guidelines and improving the look and feel of documentation. Good practice guides could take on a higher profile with an in-flight code change looking to create a formal approval mechanism to create Approved Codes of Practice.

Project Déjà Vu Data Enrichment

Applicants: Precision Water

Sponsor: Everflow

This pilot project will cleanse and match a selection of core supply points (SPIDs) to their relevant Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN)/Valuation Office Agency (VOA) reference, with an aim to demonstrate benefits such as an increase in the quality of customer address data, allowing for solutions to be addressed quicker, and a reduction of wholesaler-retailer friction following an increase in the accuracy and cleanliness of address data.

Project AMIDST (Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) data strategic transfer) - a pathfinder to investigate feasibility and benefits of sharing AMI data wholesalers direct to CMOS

Applicant: Anglian Water

Sponsor: MOSL

This project aims to investigate how AMI meter read data is standardised in the central market operating system (CMOS), by creating an online pathfinder platform that can be used by wholesalers to directly share available AMI data in a standard format, amongst other capabilities. This could decrease barrier to entry costs for all trading parties.

Further develop options and RWG recommendations for increasing water demand reduction delivery on non-household properties and within the retail market

Applicant: Thames Water

The funding awarded for this project will help develop the RWG Water Efficiency sub-group roadmap to ensure it provides a compelling case for change to the regulatory framework. It will explore ways in which customers, retailers and wholesalers can be incentivised to make water efficiency changes which was a core government proposition for creating the retail water market.

PinPoint

Applicant: Wheatley

Sponsor: Bristol Water

Wheatley and Bristol Water aim to enhance their PinPoint app to provide a market-wide tool to improve supply point and meter accuracy data, making a central hub accessible to all trading parties. This project includes a three-month pilot of Blicker AI technology, which will capture a meter read value and seral number from a photograph.

All awards are subject to terms and conditions, including regular review of progress and demonstratable benefit to the market and its customers.

MOSL’s Finance Director and Project Sponsor, Steve Formoy said:

“We are really pleased with the quantity and quality of bids we received for the first round of funding. The diversity in the winning bids proves that there is an appetite for change and these projects have the potential to provide significant benefits to the market.”