Legacy Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service to be switched off today
Elexon will switch off the legacy Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service (BMRS) on 31 May (2024) at 11:59pm, as we have replaced it with the Insights Solution, our new wholesale market data platform.
The Insights Solution is an improved data service
The Insights Solution offers a more visual, detailed and customisable data service when browsing the website. And it is backed by more than 200 high performing APIs to help anyone with an interest in the wholesale electricity market to perform their own analysis.
The datasets available through the Insights Solution platform range from electricity generation mix and demand statistics at five minute intervals, to data on interconnector flows and generation forecasts.
We also publish detailed information on indicative Imbalance Settlement prices, and provide the portal that energy companies must use to disclose electricity infrastructure outages in compliance with under the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) rules.
Elexon’s data will play an essential role in helping the energy transition
Elexon Chief Executive, Peter Stanley said: “Elexon is the custodian of the largest datasets available on the wholesale electricity market. We are pleased to now be providing a more advanced and modern platform for people to access this information, through the Insights Solution.
“Our data will play an essential role in supporting progress to Net Zero and the energy transition. We will continue to develop our services as a provider of valuable data. This includes listening to feedback and improving the Insights Solution where necessary.
“Once implementation of MHHS is completed in December 2026 Elexon will be processing 12 billion half hourly metering readings annually. We will make specific half-hourly consumption data available through the Insights Solution, in compliance with the consumer privacy framework which Ofgem is developing. Access to this information will support innovation needed to meet Net Zero and by providing it, we are further demonstrating our commitment to open data.”
The number of users of our wholesale market data has grown significantly
In 2016, when we re-built the BMRS platform and launched the BMRS APIs there were around 10,000 API users, compared with 90,000 in 2023/24. This demonstrates the importance of our data in helping energy companies, Ofgem, Government and other analysts from GB and across the world, to understand the GB market. The original BMRS platform was built in 2000.
Thank you to our Data and Reporting User Group members
Around 200 people across the industry have been supporting the development of the Insights Solution through our Data and Reporting User Group (DRG).
Their input and feedback has been essential to our ability to design the solution in a way that responds to users’ needs. We look forward to working with DRG members as we continue to develop the platform.
Historical Imbalance Settlement data
While Elexon has migrated most historical datasets from BMRS to the Insights Solution platform, initially, the calculated Imbalance Settlement data was only available from February 2024.
From week commencing 3 June 2024, we will make two years of historical data available and will continue to backfill this as far back as 2015. We will gradually feed in this backfilled data to maintain the performance of the production system.