Tuesday 16 April 2019
Brexit: Energy Balancing and Settlement Code modification decision postponed
The Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) Panel has postponed a decision on whether to implement a modification following the Brexit extension.
The BSC is a legal document which defines the rules and governance for the balancing mechanism and imbalance settlement processes of electricity in Britain.
It contains multiple references to EU legislation and bodies, however, retaining them if the UK leaves the EU without a deal will mean it is no longer technically accurate but will remain operable because of the EU Withdrawal Act 2018.
That will allow the BSC to remain in operation immediately after the exit day, however, the technical inaccuracies may lead to confusion for anyone not familiar with the relevant Brexit legislations.
Modification P382 proposes the BSC is amended to reflect where EU regulations will not be retained in a no-deal Brexit scenario, aiming to remove any potential confusion.
The BSC Panel, therefore, decided to defer the decision on whether it should implement the changes until its meeting on 10th October, ahead of Brexit.
ELEXON, which manages the BSC, said it has been undertaking contingency planning “to respond to all potential eventualities” as a result of the Brexit negotiations.
It added: “ELEXON will continue to monitor and analyse Brexit announcements for relevance to the BSC as well as liaising with Ofgem, BEIS and other Code Administrators. If we assess that the Panel need to make a decision on P382 ahead of the 10 October Panel meeting, we will make any recommendations at the appropriate time.”
