Timeline for development and testing of the solutions
Costs for the Helix Programme
Ofgem approved Modification P423 ‘Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement (MHHS) Implementation and Governance Arrangements’ in October 2021. It allows Elexon to manage and oversee the MHHS Programme, as the MHHS Implementation Manager. It also requires Programme Participants to change their systems and business processes to support MHHS.
The finance table on page 5 of the business plan sets out the costs for the programme for 2022/23 (£16.2m), and projected costs for 2023/24 and 2024/2025 of £6.2m and £2m respectively.
To ensure that Elexon and Participants comply with P423, it is imperative that we deliver the Helix Programme systems and services first, so that they can be tested with a sub-set of industry participants. Industry market participants will also be re-developing their own systems, which they will need to adapt, along with their processes so that they can interface with, and provide data to Elexon’s new Helix systems.
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Elexon
During 2022/23 we will be working with vendors to develop the Helix services so that they are ready by April 2023, to support industry testing which continues until the end of September 2024. Following this there will be a transition phase where legacy systems and process will be running alongside the new services and systems before go live of MHHS across the industry from October 2025.
These projected costs are the best estimates we have at this time for Years 2 and 3 of the programme, as the MHHS design has yet to be concluded. Year 2 and 3 spending will be focused on testing, integration and assurance of the Helix Programme. The staffing levels required for the testing and integration phases are lower than for the development phase of the programme over the coming year. We will continue to evaluate the programme, and keep a close eye on costs.
