Meter Timeswitch Codes (MTC) for electricity meters

Ildhund

Does anyone know where to find a (current) list of Meter Timeswitch Codes (MTC) that specify the peak and offpeak times for a specific multi-rate MPAN? My limited search skills have so far failed me when battling my way through the Elexon/BSC jungle.

[It's the same story with SSCs and TPRs, but this really helpful table has saved me a lot of work. It's getting on in years, but it hasn't yet let me down.]

mmmmikey

The WikiPedia page says that these are DNO specific in which case you're not looking for a single list but each DNO's list. Also, do you know if these are still used and/or maintained and/or have any meaning now we live in an age of smart meters?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_Point_Administration_Number

Ildhund

mmmmikey said:

... these are DNO specific in which case you're not looking for a single list but each DNO's list.

Yes, some of them will apparently be DNO-specific. I would expect any table I managed to unearth to make this plain. 

There is a list of SSCs - which are also to some extent DNO-specific - somewhere at the Elexon site, but it's so unwieldy in HTML as to be unusable as a reference. It is possible to find the SSC corresponding to known switching times from the old engie table, but I'd also like to be able to get them from a known MTC.

mmmmikey said:

Also, do you know if these are still used and/or maintained and/or have any meaning now we live in an age of smart meters?

Apparently so. They now allegedly vary by prepayment/credit, which has caused problems when switching: Case Study: Smart meters - MTC timeswitch code… | Energy Ombudsman

mmmmikey

Hmmm, interesting - is this what you're looking for....

http://mddonline.elexon.co.uk/mddtable.aspx?tbl=Meter+Timeswitch+Class

(You need to scroll down to 500 and then 800 to see anything interesting)

superkoopauk

I thought the TPR determined the peak and offpeak times not the MTC?

mmmmikey

superkoopauk said:

I thought the TPR determined the peak and offpeak times not the MTC?

Yes, based on the Wikipedia page that is my understanding too. To quote from that source:

"Each non-half-hourly supply has a four digit code called the Standard Settlement Configuration (SSC), which specifies the number of registers a meter has, and the times that each register is recording electricity usage. The times that a register is recording is specified with a five digit code Time Pattern Regime (TPR). So for example a supply with SSC 0943 has two registers with TPRs 00404 and 00405. The 00404 TPR register records from 01:00 to 02:30 and 08:00 to 23:30, and the 00405 register records for the rest of the time."

So if you're trying to establish timings from the MPAN I don't think you can. All you can do is to get a more basic level of information such as whether the meter is a single rate meter, economy 7, economy 10, etc.

Ildhund

mmmmikey said:

Hmmm, interesting - is this what you're looking for....

http://mddonline.elexon.co.uk/mddtable.aspx?tbl=Meter+Timeswitch+Class

Thanks! That URL proved unreachable for me. However, I persevered and eventually reached
https://www.elexonportal.co.uk/MDDVIEWER
Was yours an out-of-date bookmark, perhaps? Elexon have been moving stuff around for months ... 

mmmmikey

Not sure why the link doesn't work, doesn't work for me either now. I just followed the link from the wiki page.

superkoopauk

You need a log in to get to the MDD

Ildhund

superkoopauk said:

You need a log in to get to the MDD

Yes, but that's just a question of signing up with an email address. IIRC, there used to be a complicated sign up process requiring all sorts of details about the company I worked for, assuming it was a Market Participant (a technical term in this context). I saw nothing of the sort this time, so now I have access to much of the MDD, including (almost) the bit I was specifically looking for: a table linking MTCs to SSCs. I may be making heavy work of a simple task, but the one thing I haven't yet found in the MDD database: a table linking SSCs and TPRs with the specific timing details. I've had to extract the data from engie's old PDF to link the whole lot together.

mmmmikey

Ildhund said:

superkoopauk said:

You need a log in to get to the MDD

Yes, but that's just a question of signing up with an email address. IIRC, there used to be a complicated sign up process requiring all sorts of details about the company I worked for, assuming it was a Market Participant (a technical term in this context). I saw nothing of the sort this time, so now I have access to much of the MDD, including (almost) the bit I was specifically looking for: a table linking MTCs to SSCs. I may be making heavy work of a simple task, but the one thing I haven't yet found in the MDD database: a table linking SSCs and TPRs with the specific timing details. I've had to extract the data from engie's old PDF to link the whole lot together.

Sounds like you are making progress. I'm intrigued, what's driving this? Academic interest or something more specific?