The process that all Parties must comply with is given in CSD0101.

In General terms, if the LP has found the Gap Site (or a site that has become an eligible premises by virtue of a change of use), the LP must inform Scottish Water and Scottish Water must then confirm that the site is in fact a Gap Site before registering a new SPID, or pair of SPIDs, depending on what services Scottish Water consider are being provided, using a T001.0 transaction which will also identify the LP concerned.

Scottish Water will also follow this process if they become aware of a site that is a Gap Site (or has become an eligible premises by virtue of a change of use) and will also seek to identify a suitable LP for such site, as part of their confirmation activities. If an LP can be found for the site, this LP will be identified in the T001.0.

If no LP can be identified for a Gap Site, Scottish Water shall still submit the T001.0 and the CMA will follow its allocation process to allocate the Gap Site to an LP that has not opted out of the Gap Site Allocation arrangements, as defined under the Market Code.

 

The Operational Code identifies the point at which the process for creating a new connection reaches a point when a notification under the Market Code is required. At such point, Scottish Water will submit this notification, using the T001.0 transaction.

CSD0101 identifies the specific actions that are required under the Market Code and these may be summarised as follows:

  • Scottish Water creates the New SPID, via the T001.0, subject to confirmation by the CMA
  • The LP accepts responsibility for the SPID, via the T003.0, which then puts the SPID into a status of Partial on the CMA Central Systems. If the LP considers that the SPID is not attributable to them, they may reject the SPID.
  • Scottish Water and the LP shall then allocate at least one  Service Element (with an RV, if such SE requires it), to enable the SPID to become chargeable;
    • Scottish Water will notify Miscellaneous SEs (T006.2 for Water, or T006.3 for Sewerage), Meters (T4s, T005.0s, or T016.0 if Unmeasurable) and Meter Networks (T036.0s) (and the LP may provide a YVe via a T004.2) and any TE (T021.0, T023.0).
    • The LP provides  an RV (T006.0 for Water, or T006.1 for Sewerage)
  • To become Tradable; Scottish Water (for a water SPID), or the LP (for a sewerage SPID), provides a Connection Date (T007.0 for Water, or T007.1 for Sewerage, respectively) and the SPID must have at least one SE, with an RV, if required. If a meter has been registered against the SPID, an I Read must also be provided and the Connection Date is set to the later of the submitted Connection Date and the date of the I Read.

 

To become Tradable; Scottish Water (for a water SPID), or the LP (for a sewerage SPID), must provide a Connection Date (T007.0 for Water, or T007.1 for Sewerage, respectively) and the SPID must have at least one SE, with an RV, if required. If a meter has been registered against the SPID, an I Read must also be provided and the Connection Date is set to the later of the submitted Connection Date and the date of the I Read.

Any changes to a meter are covered by CSD0104 and require various submissions from Scottish Water, as follows:

A meter swap refers to a like-for-like replacement of a meter and requires a T017.0 submission to be made to the CMA to effect such a swap.

A meter change could involve only a change to chargeable meter data, which requires the submission of a T014.0 transaction.

If a meter is actually being removed and replaced with another different meter, possibly with a different meter treatment (such as a move from a SPID being re-assessed, which uses a Pseudo Meter, to being metered with an SW Water meter), a final read is required for the old meter and an I read for the new meter, as well as a submission establishing the new meter.

Meter Read validation is set out in CSD0203 and two types of rejection tend to occur most commonly:

  • Volume validation failure, the most common error codes being;
    • BH (Meter Read Rejected: Daily Usage Too High),
    • BE (Meter Read Rejected: outside meter capacity limit), if a read creates an advance that is higher than the maximum anticipated for the given meter size (as indicated by the Industry Level Estimates provided by Scottish Water,
    • BL (Meter Read Rejected: Daily Usage Too Low),
    • BN (Meter Read Rejected: Small negative meter advance, would create a negative charge),
    • BV (Meter Read Rejected: Negative meter advance larger than 3m3 per day; would create a negative charge) and
    • BZ (Meter Read Rejected: Zero Meter Advance).
  •  Date validation failure, where a read is submitted for a date on which a read already exists in the CMA Central Systems; resulting in error code BF (A read for this date already exists).

If the Trading Party believes the Meter Read to be correct, but one of error codes BH, BL, BZ, BN, or BV has been received, they may resubmit the Meter Read as a Re-Read. Otherwise they should update the information required to ensure the failure will not recur and submit a new Meter Read. Furthermore, it should be noted that rejections for negative advances may occur if the rollover flag is not set, but should be. 

Settlement and Performance Reports can only be seen by relevant Trading Parties and the CMA. For LPs, this means that only charges and volumes against SPIDs for which the LP is responsible will be made available in the Reports. Additionally, only users with suitable access rights will be able to see these Reports.

CSD0105 provides the full process for progressing a Retrospective Amendment.

In summary, there are two possibilities:

  • If an approach for a Retrospective Amendment (RA) to the identified data item already exists, it will be provided by the CMA as an Additional Service via the LVI. In such cases, the RA request can also be made via the LVI and if valid, the RA will be executed, the outcome reported via the LVI and the relevant Party invoiced for the Additional Service accordingly.
  • If an RA is requested for a data item for which no RA approach has yet been developed (and will not, therefore, be identified as an Additional Service), the Party should submit a request to the CMA to consider the feasibility for such a new RA

CSD0105 identifies that a Party should contact the relevant Data Owner and invite the Data Owner to consider correcting the erroneous data item.

These are the two different mechanisms for correcting an erroneous data item held by the CMA on the CMA Central Systems.

Error Rectification involves changing the erroneous data item to its correct value using relevant update transactions and this approach can be applied to any data items identified as being capable of correction by Error Rectification in CSD0301.

Retrospective Amendment is required for data items that ‘crystallize’ and need to be corrected by this approach, as identified in CSD0301, where such amendment seeks to change a crystallized value. The Retrospective Amendment process is a bespoke process, to be agreed with the CMA.

Crystallization applies to data items that can have different values at different times. It means that a historic data item value for such a data item is, in effect, locked-in and any updates to the value for that data item can only be accepted via transaction, typically, for dates on or after the Effective From Date of the most recent change to the relevant SPID.

It should be noted that the term ‘crystallization’ is not a defined term under the Market Code, but is a term in general use to describe the treatment for data items subject to Retrospective Amendment for error correction.