BSC
Balancing and Settlement Code
Industry BodiesThe industry code that governs how electricity supply and demand is balanced and settled financially - administered by Elexon, it defines how meters are registered and consumption is allocated.
The Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) is the central rulebook for electricity trading and settlement in Great Britain. It defines how the electricity market operates minute-by-minute and how financial settlement occurs between generators, suppliers, and the system operator.
What BSC covers:
- Electricity trading arrangements
- Imbalance settlement (when actual differs from contracted)
- Meter registration and data collection
- Profile class definitions and coefficients
- Data flows between market participants (D0018, D0019, etc.)
Key BSC concepts:
- Imbalance - Difference between contracted and actual volumes
- System prices - The price for settling imbalances
- Profile coefficients - How NHH consumption is estimated by half-hour
- Settlement periods - The 48 half-hours in each day
BSC Change Proposals: Changes to the BSC go through a formal Change Proposal (CP) process. Important recent changes include:
- CP1434 - Introduced alphanumeric LLFC codes (June 2016)
- P432 - Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS)
Why BSC matters for bill validation: The D0018 data flows (profile coefficients) that EnergyCode uses to estimate when non-half-hourly customers use electricity are defined and managed under BSC.
Related terms
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