Settlement Runs

Settlement is the process by which MOSL calculates the charges payable by individual retailers to their related wholesalers, for the supply of water and sewerage services. These are created for each invoice period (monthly). 

Please note, MOSL takes no part in either the invoicing or funds transfer in respect to these charges. These should be dealt with directly by the wholesaler and retailer in accordance with Business Terms. For more information please the Section 4.13 of the Market Terms.

The Central Market Operating System (CMOS) carries out detailed calculations on data maintained by market participants. The calculations of these are detailed in CSD0207: charge calculation, allocation and aggregation and make use of the tariff data maintained by the wholesalers in accordance with CSD0208: submission and validation of wholesaler tariff data. MOSL produces settlement reports, using this data, in accordance with CSD0201: settlement timetable and reporting. For upcoming settlement and report timings, please see the Settlement Timetable.

Following the distribution of the R2, R3, and RF Settlement Reports and the distribution of the R1 Settlement Report, where the pre-payment option has been selected by the retailer based on the P1 report - the wholesaler will calculate the reconciliation balances and invoice the retailer in respect of these balances.

The reconciliation balances are the differences between the amounts already paid by the retailer for the invoice period, and the charges calculated by the updated Settlement Run. As such, reconciliation could result in either a refund or an additional charge being applied to the retailer.

An unplanned settlement run is the recalculation of primary charges for an invoice period outside of the planned schedule of reconciliations. It can be carried out when an incorrect data item has affected the calculation of primary charges reported in a planned settlement run. Unplanned settlement runs will either be carried out by agreement of the impacted trading parties (corrective settlement runs and post RF settlement runs) or following the resolution of a dispute (dispute settlement run). These recalculated values can be used by the affected parties to determine charges due by the retailer to the wholesaler.

Trading parties are able to initiate an Unplanned Settlement Run (USR) request via My MOSL. As the initiator of the application for an unplanned settlement run, you will be required to ensure the below points have been actioned appropriately:

• Ensure that the Supporting Unplanned Settlement Information document has been filled out correctly, including:
  a. The current figure of the incorrect settlement run (or incorrect element);
  b. The projected figure following correction and how this has been determined; and
  c. Demonstrating that the correction will meet the materiality threshold requirement dependent on the type of unplanned settlement run you seek
• Detail sufficient information of each wholesale-retail pairing requiring recalculation
• Determining contributing costs of the unplanned settlement run
• All parties (including indirectly affected organisations) are in agreement of the unplanned settlement run occurring (and any assigned costs), with attachments provided evidencing their approval.

The request will be validated and acknowledged via the portal from which the request was made. Once correctly validated, MOSL will schedule the Unplanned Settlement Run for the next available time.

Once successfully complete, the settlement run will be published and you will be notified of the completion of the Unplanned Settlement Report via the portal where the Unplanned Settlement Run was requested. 

Other trading parties may receive disaggregated reports for meter networks (D3) and/or user exceptions (D4) reports upon the recalculations of a separate wholesale-retail pairing. Please note, this is generated by CMOS but should not affect settlement calculations. If any issues do occur, please contact operations@mosl.co.uk, who are available to provide guidance if there are any queries.

For corrective settlement runs, the materiality thresholds are the larger of :

•  1.0 per cent of the value of the primary charges due to the contracting wholesaler, from the contracting retailer, for the relevant area in that invoice period
• £10,000.00.

For dispute settlement runs, the materiality threshold is the larger of:

• 1.0 per cent of the sum of the aggregate value of the primary charges due to the contracting wholesaler, from the contracting retailer, for the relevant area over all of the relevant invoice periods
• £10,000.00 x the number of runs proposed to be carried out.

For post RF settlement runs, the materiality threshold is the larger of:

• 0.1 per cent of the sum of the aggregate value of the primary charges due to the contracting wholesaler from the contracting retailer for the relevant area for each of the relevant consecutive invoice periods affected
• £3,000.00 x the number of runs to be carried out.

The costs of an unplanned settlement run can be found on the additional services webpage and will be based on the number of wholesale-retail pairings required. However, no charge will apply for pairings where the included retailer is indirectly affected by the actions of other retailers. For example, where a new retailer has provided an inaccurate meter reading within CMOS, but the effects of the meter reading have also affected charges for the previous retailer. The new retailer’s pairing will be chargeable, but the previous retailer’s pairing will be corrected without charge. The costs are to be covered by the impacted trading parties – for voluntary re-runs, costs can be assigned as agreed by the affected parties. Costs accrued through the dispute settlement run will be determined and allocated by the Disputes Committee, the arbiter or the expert as applicable.

The process by which the Credit Support Requirement is calculated is set out in the Wholesale Retail Code (WRC), Part 1, Objectives, Definitions and Principles and the Business Terms. Please note that this requirement is calculated with reference to the value of the P1 Aggregated Settlement Report and as such, may fluctuate between invoice periods.

The Supply Point Identifier (SPID) will stay the same regardless of the tariff applied for settlement, as it relates directly to the premise. If a meter is installed which moves the premise to measured then the wholesaler will need to update the market operator (MOSL) using the T104.W, with all the neccesary data to update this. Settlement charges are calculated on a daily basis and will take into account any changes to tariffs affecting data.

R2, R3, and RF settlement runs are carried out in a consecutive order every two, eight, fourteen and sixteen months after the end of the invoice period. Each run is a complete recalculation of the settlement charges and factors in new and updated data about each supply point, which has been submitted market participants into CMOS.

If you are the data owner, you can correct the data by sending in suitable transactions. Please note, there are some transactions which are currently unavailable. In some cases, it it is possible to use a workaround, as detailed in the workaround log, other times may be necessary to wait until a future CMOS Release to correct the data.

The most likely cause of incorrect settlement is incorrect or missing data. Your first action should be to carefully check the data inputted and your calculation.. If you’re still concerned the settlement is wrong, please fill out the Settlement Clarification Request Form.

P1 runs are carried out before the invoice period, whereas R1 runs are carried out immediately following the invoice period. In accordance with Section 9.2.2 of the Business Terms, a retailer can choose either a pre-payment or a post-payment option with agreement from the wholesaler, in order to pay its primary charges.

As per the Market Terms, an Unplanned Settlement Run can be requested until the end of the Month prior to the next planned Settlement Run. 

Unplanned Settlement Runs for RF periods can be requested inline with the deadlines set out in the Invoicing and Post RF timetable available from the MOSL website. 

Dispute runs should be raised in a timely manner following rectification of the issue.

In the event in which an application is raised or notice has been provided to MOSL prior to publication of the relevant settlement report, the application will not be processed until said reports have been published to the wider market, as per the dates outlined within the MOSL calendar and along the guidelines stipulated within the Code Subsidiary Documents (CSDs).

Unplanned settlement runs must meet the materiality requirements set out in the Market Codes. Where this is not met, trading parties will need to wait until the next planned settlement run.

Participants may have seen a ‘system exception report’ during market testing. The objective of this report is to provide evidence to MOSL of an issue with settlement, primarily due to an internal CMOS defect.

Settlement Runs are done overnight, but will only include transactions up to the end of that business day (6pm).

Market participant’s systems will inevitably not be directly comparable to CMOS, which may result in this variation. For example, participants may have various financial, billing and specialised sub-systems in place, which produce similar, but not directly comparable results. For example, it is possible that a financial system may calculate monthly revenues, but the routines used to calculate consumption will not be the same as those in CMOS. A billing system is likely to produce bills from meter read to meter read, so these would not cover the same period as the CMOS settlement system. However, over a longer period, these effects will balance out.

Yes. P1 Settlement Reports will be provided to all wholesalers and retailers participating in the market.

With regards to disputes, the next Settlement Run will provide corrections to the disputed item(s). A wholesaler can then reconcile against the previous invoice with any over or under charge identified and reconciled. If this can’t be done, or the dispute meets certain conditions as detailed in Market Terms 4.13.4, then an unplanned Settlement Run can be requested.

When a Yearly Volume Estimate (YVE) of zero is supplied, zero settlement charge is calculated.

It is usual for the sums on the reports to differ slightly - this is caused by rounding. For example, in the Aggregated Report all the relevant charges (from multiple supply points) are initially added without rounding. The totals are then rounded to four decimal places. In the Disaggregated Reports the charges in each line are shown rounded to four decimal places. When these rounded numbers are added, there is a minor discrepancy in overall total.

The answer to this varies depending on the organisation. Participants should carry out the appropriate checks in respect to the accuracy of the settlement calculation and of the data supplied, to suit the requirements of their organisation.

The format and content of the Settlement Reports is defined in CSD0201: settlement timetable and reporting. Where defects in the deployed version of these reports have been identified, the reports will be amended to reflect CSD0201.