Noting Paper 351 - LCCD Risk workshop summary

[Technical-DSB]

This Noting Paper summarises the results of the in-person workshop conducted on 19th March 2024 with Energy participants.

The workshop focused on discussing risks associated with the adoption of Last Consumer Change Date (LCCD) in the data standards for improved sharing of historical electricity usage data. The paper outlines key risks raised and discussed, provides analysis and highlights the next steps.

The noting paper is attached below:

Noting_Paper_351-LCCD_Risk_Workshop_Summary.pdf

This is not a formal consultation, and feedback is not required, but may be provided.

[WendyEnergyFlex]

Energyflex supports the use of the LCCD because without it, there is a significant impact on our ability to provide continuous insights as our clients change retailers on their journey to improve their energy outcomes. This lack of data continuity affects our customers' ability to assess the impact of their actions, such as moving to a new energy retailer and evaluating their energy use profile for sustainability and cost-saving benefits. Currently, each time a user switches retailers, interval data stops with the retailer change. We cannot calculate a valid EnergyFlex rating until the user has accumulated sufficient history with the new retailer, which means we lose the ability to advise users for at least a month after each retailer change. We support scenario 1 and agree with the CX Option 1a but request that the LCCD date field be populated in the CDS as part of standing data. This will allow us to validate the populated date and ensure that the LCCD process correctly populates as intended and also to ensure that the data holder provides the data correctly according to the LCCD flag.

[Sbendat]

As a data recipient, SolvingZero strongly supports LCCD and the ability to provide users with a fuller history of their energy data. As this Noting Paper concerns a risk assessment workshop, we feel the biggest risk is not having a fully featured LCCD implementation available.

We have already had customers flag with us that they are disappointed that they cannot see their historical energy usage beyond the history of their current energy retailer relationship. In one example, the user was quite surprised they only had one week of usage history available as they recently made the switch to a new retailer. Without enough historical data, all of our user-facing analysis tools are useless, and the user is unable to view their energy savings opportunities until we have enough historical data to use.

Not providing users their own full energy history because they have recently changed retailers prevents them from changing retailers more often. This is why the LCCD is crucial, it will empower users to find better energy savings with different retailers as often as they would like.

We'd be more than happy to discuss why an LCCD type of implementation is critical for consumers and data recipients.