Market Operator Services Ltd (MOSL) the organisation responsible for delivering the operational capability needed when the retail market opens in April 2017, has confirmed that the remaining companies have completed their final data uploads into the central market operating system (CMOS) and that the shadow market phase has now begun.
MOSL is working with DEFRA, Ofwat and the water companies as part of the Open Water Programme which will offer non-household customers a choice of supplier and access to tailored packages that best suit their needs.
A number of the water companies were able to take earlier upload slots than originally planned during the market entry assurance and final data upload processes.
All companies have now entered the shadow market and some 2.26 million of 2.6 million supply points identifiers (SPIDs) have now been uploaded into the CMOS – MOSL described this as “a truly heroic achievement by all involved.”
MOSL said it is continuing to work with Water Plus to complete the upload of all of their data – the organisation has been working with the Water Plus, Severn Trent and United Utilities’ teams to overcome an issue that Water Plus has had in loading Severn Trent’s data.
According to the market operator, Water Plus have processes in place so that customers are not affected by their system issue. MOSL is planning to undertake further data uploads from them in October and November to complete the process.
Severn Trent has been able to load a portion of their SPID portfolio pre-shadow and are able to participate in this phase of the programme.
With the shadow market having now begun, MOSL said it is now moving into service mode. The MOSL website has been updated to include a self-service portal for registered users which has launched this afternoon.
MOSL has also written to the retail companies’teams setting out its intended service model, saying it will continue to monitor and evolve this in light of experience and feedback.
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