MOSL and Ofgem have taken urgent action to support water retail market during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a letter sent to wholesalers and retailers, CEO of MOSL, Sarah McMath, announced the immediate measures to support market participants and their customers.
These include taking steps to:
• Waive performance charges with effect from 1 March 2020.
• Ensure all the performance charges collected during 2019/20 are available for re-distribution to trading parties (rather than used for market improvement projects).
• Enable retailers to offset 2020/21 Market Operator (MO) charges against prior year performance charges (based on the specific amount that would otherwise be redistributed to them in September 2021) with effect from April 2020.
• Improve settlement estimation to reflect reduced water consumption from April 2020.
• Develop potential changes to provide relief on late payment of settlement charges to be progressed over the next two to three weeks.
Working with Ofwat, MOSL are developing a package of initiatives to take forward to address these issues, including Ofwat-raised Authority Timetabled code changes.
The actions were proposed by MOSL and discussed with Defra and Ofwat in meetings held on 18 March 2020.
