The market operator for the non-domestic water retail sector (MOSL) is to set out how suppliers should gradually remove the protections for businesses impacted by coronavirus.
Since March, business premises that cannot open to workers, the public or visitors – or have seen a 95 per cent reduction in normal activities – are flagged as ‘vacant’ to stop bills being generated.
MOSL has said it will now develop guidance for retailers on identifying sites that are still marked as vacant but are showing signs of consumption and how to return them to an “occupied” status. It will also advise on the disconnection or deregistration of long-term vacant premises that may require significant refurbishment to return to an occupiable state.
Alongside vacancy, MOSL says the key focus in its response to coronavirus will be around meter reading, where a framework to assess performance will be developed.
Covid-19 is one of three workstreams included in MOSL’s third Market Performance Operating Plan. The others are:
- Ensuring high quality customer, premises and asset data
- Improving the accuracy and relevancy of consumption data
The first workstream aims to get a handle on longstanding obstacles to market performance caused by the quality and completeness of available data. MOSL said it would consider introducing incentives to ensure high standards for data quality are maintained. It will also focus on using data to develop more refined customer segmentation.
Another area of concentration is streamlining customer and asset management processes to make sure occupancy status and other new customer information is correct. MOSL also aims to improve the fairness and accuracy of customer billing and give better leakage data to wholesalers by managing and monitoring vacancy against targets.
The target of improving the accuracy and relevancy of data will include an objective for greater sharing of meter reads and work to make the submission process simpler and minimise rejections.
MOSL has also set an objective of managing and monitor meter reading performance against targets and to build a strategic plan for improved meter reading service provision.
Steve Arthur director of market performance at MOSL said the plan reflected the principles of flexibility and adaptability the sector has demonstrated since the outbreak of the crisis.
“I have been galvanized by the collective ambition to address the issues which have been inhibiting progress for too long – moving on from tactical to substantial strategic change.”