In an open letter, Ofgem has approved the use of the Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service (BMRS) for Great Britain following Brexit.
Transmission System Operators are required to receive and publish transparency data as part of the Transparency Regulation, following the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.
This publication of data on GB’s electricity industry must be available to the public free of charge through the internet in English, it must be up to date, easily accessible, downloadable and available for at least five years and data updates must be timestamped, archived and made available to the public.
Ofgem said that its reason for approving BMRS for this use was that it already fulfilled the data publication requirements, with the only exception being data on the electricity interconnectors connecting into GB who were ensuring the submission of their data directly to the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).
According to Elexon, this decision has had no impact on BMRS and market participants don’t have to do anything differently for BMRS.
Those that are registered with Ofgem for trading in GB or are registered with an EU National Regulatory Authority (NRA) in Europe don’t not need to re-register with Ofgem, Elexon explained. However, those that intend to trade in the EU now that the transition period has ended will need to register with a European NRA.
The impact Brexit will have on the UK energy system has long been debated, with a number of recommendations made by a range of industry players since it was first announced.
Most recently, in a declaration signed by 50 companies the Zero Carbon Campaign called for the UK government to commit to stronger and more consistent carbon pricing. Specifically, this called for the inclusion of carbon pricing in the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) announcement, encouragement for all jurisdictions to include new or strengthened carbon pricing commitments and work to secure a global agreement on carbon pricing.
A strong emphasis has been placed on the importance of carbon pricing, with Orsted, SSE and Drax, along with non-profit climate change think-tank Sandbag, writing to then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid in 2019 urging him to maintain the UK’s “robust approach”.
As part of this, Sandbag CEO Phil MacDonald warned that Brexit had thrown the UK’s carbon pricing into “chaos”, stating that with the UK suspended from the EU carbon market “businesses can’t know how much they will be paying for their emissions”.
