Electricity Pool takes the plunge

#1bn electricity deregulation system goes live

The #1bn system supporting the deregulated electricity supply market went live last week, paving the way for the introduction of competition in September, writes Andrew Darling.

The Electricity Pool system will calculate every 30 minutes how much electricity has been purchased by each of the 14 regional suppliers, and how much they owe to the electricity generators. The Pool will also set the price of electricity through a bidding process linking suppliers and generators.

The system, developed by Logica, uses an Oracle database running under Unix. Peter Bostock, programme manager for the Electricity Pool at IT management consultants OSI, described it as ?probably one of the most complex IT and change management programmes in the world?. He estimated that almost #1bn had been spent on the project since 1990.

The original date for delivery of the system was August 1997, with testing due to be completed by October and the market opening in April 1998. However, in January this year, electricity industry regulator Offer decided to delay deregulation until September to allow extra time for the 60 companies involved in the Electricity Pool to agree interfacing requirements, and for legal, commercial and settlement processes to be agreed between the companies.

A spokesman for Offer said that from 27 July, the new trading arrangements to support the wholesale market will be in place.

So far, two electricity suppliers, Eastern and Yorkshire, have successfully passed the Pool?s trials, and will enter the competitive market in mid-September. Manweb, Scottish Power and Seeboard are also expected to be ready for entry in the first tranche.

Other suppliers will join the Electricity Pool in October and December.