Generator pays out £6m over misleading data

ESB Independent Generation Trading has paid £6 million into the energy redress fund after it inadvertently submitted misleading data to National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO).

ESB is the controller of the generation output of its wholly-owned subsidiary Carrington Power’s Manchester plant.

Between March 2019 and September 2020, the company regularly submitted misleading data about the minimum amount of energy the plant could supply.

Specifically Ofgem found that Carrington, at the direction of ESB, submitted data which inflated its stable export limit above the minimum level at which the plant could, under stable conditions, export power.

On some occasions data was also submitted which inflated the plant’s minimum non-zero time (MNZT), which relates to the minimum time that a balancing mechanism unit must run for in response to an instruction to generate from the ESO.

As a result the ESO purchased more energy from the plant, spending more money than it needed to, to help it balance supply and demand on the system.

The approach by ESB was considered compliant with its obligations and it was believed it would benefit the ESO. Ofgem found there were no internal processes in place to ensure staff understood and applied the rules correctly.

Since the error corrective action has been taken and the compliance processes and training around market manipulation and submitting data to the ESO have been improved.

After admitting inadvertently breaching the rules ESB has agreed to pay £6 million to the energy redress fund to support consumers in vulnerable situations and the regulator has now closed the issue.

Cathryn Scott, regulatory director at Ofgem, said: “Ofgem has taken strong action against another generator for submitting inaccurate data to National Grid Electricity System Operator.

“Data accuracy is essential for keeping the costs of running the electricity system as low as possible for consumers. This case sends a clear signal to all generators that we are closely scrutinising their conduct and will not hesitate to act if they fall short of the standards we expect.”

A spokesperson for ESB said: “Compliance with its regulatory obligations is a priority for ESBIGT. We take this breach extremely seriously and apologise for the inadvertent breach of our obligations. We were disappointed not to have met our own high standards and took immediate steps to comply with Ofgem’s guidance.

“Corrective actions have been taken to prevent reoccurrence with new governance arrangements in place to ensure ongoing compliance.

“Although this breach was inadvertent and ESBIGT believed the dynamic parameters it submitted would contribute to lower costs to balance the system, we have taken the engagement with Ofgem extremely seriously and cooperated fully with Ofgem throughout this process.”