The regulator granted the extension to the P272 rules in response to a request by Elexon on behalf of the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) panel on 12 June this year, which said it had concerns about accuracy being affected by short implementation timescales and said there is a risk of supplies being interrupted.
Ofgem has already rejected the request by the BSC this year in April, saying that an extension on its own would not address these problems.
However after a subsequent modification raised by Npower, known as P322 – in which all sites in the affected classes with advanced meters must be moved to half-hourly settlement within 45 days of customer acquisition or contract from 5th November 2015 – it decided to approve the resubmitted extension request.
Ofgem said: “We consider that P322 alternative, together with a one-year extension to the P272 implementation date, will address the risks to consumers and settlement from implementing P272 by 1 April 2016. Extending the P272 implementation date will significantly reduce the risk of contract interruptions.”
Haven Power’s chief ecexutive Peter Bennell warned last month that the introduction of half-hourly charging would result in sharp price increases for many business customers, but would inevitably drive energy efficiency uptake.