Meter Timeswitch Codes (MTC) for electricity meters

Ildhund

mmmmikey said:

Academic interest or something more specific?

A bit of both, I suppose. I've been following the experiences of several RTS users in Scotland whose meters are being replaced. There are so many different threads to be woven together that it's a miracle any of the exchanges work. Some of those switching from THTC systems to more conventional tariffs like Economy 10 are seeing problems after an apparently successful meter exchange, and it's often difficult to spot precisely which strand is out of place. I wasn't aware before of the direct link between MTC and the associated SSC and TPRs, and I wanted to make sure that in cases where, for example, two MPANs had been replaced by a single one, it wasn't just because the supplier got the MTC or SSC or TPRs wrong. I saw one case where everything was right except that the TPRs were the wrong way round (Tier 1 offpeak instead of peak). That wouldn't matter so much except that DCC doesn't allow it. 

Bearing in mind how unbelievably complicated settlement in general is, as borne out by the Elexon site and its offshoots, you could write a DSc thesis on how to configure a smart meter.

Ildhund

mmmmikey said:

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.

It should be possible, at least to get close, so long as suppliers play the game according to the rules (big supposition!).

There is a 1-to-few relationship between SSC and TPR. An SSC covers one or more mutually-exclusive TPRs, which tell the meter when to switch registers (one thing it doesn't tell meters is to which tiers the TPRs should be applied, which can be critical). This is the engie table.

There is a relationship between SSCs and MPIDs, so each MPID has its own set, some elements of which may be shared with other MPIDs. This is one of the MDD tables whose name I've forgotten, sorry

There is also a list of SSCs which fit to a specific MTC - the MDD Valid_MTC_SSC_Combination files.

So, an MPAN belonging to a particular supplier has an MTC, but the associated SSC might (or more likely will) vary with DNO. The MPAN will give a specific DNO/MTC combination - in my case, for example, 11/808. Armed with this, I can look up the associated SSCs. In my case, there's only one: 0244, which the engie table tells me comprises TPRs 00040 (Weekdays & Weekends 0700-2400, Day) and 00206 (All days 0000-0700, Night).

---

  
BSC Balancing and Settlement Code, the document that specifies how suppliers are charged for the electricity they sell to customers
DNO Distribution Network Operator, AKA LDSO, Licensed Distribution System Operator
GSP Grid Supply Point, a letter (e.g. _B = East Midlands) defining the extent of each DNOs area, more-or-less identical to the distribution area code (e.g. 11)
LLF Line Loss Factor, an element of the MPAN giving a code used to adjust settlement for factors like transmission losses
MDD Market Domain Data, Elexon's BSC repository of all the tables used for settlement
MPAN Meter Point Administration Number, the unique identifier for each electricity supply
MPID Market Participant ID, a four-letter identifier for each supplier and distributor
MTC Meter Timeswitch Class, the element of the MPAN that gives the timings of meter register changes
PC Profile Class, the element of the MPAN that gives the type of supply. Domestic supplies are either PC01 (single-rate) or PC02 (multi-rate)
SSC Standard Settlement Configuration, a set of TPRs that dictate when register changes take place
TPR Time Pattern Regime, a code giving the precise register change times

[Edited 2025-02-05 to add the key to all those abbreviations and acronyms] 

[For guidance on how RTS systems may be adapted to smart metering, see Radio Teleswitch - Standard Settlement Configuration Mapping - Elexon Digital BSC]

PhysicistC

Ildhund said:

There is also a list of SSCs which fit to a specific MTC - the MDD Valid_MTC_SSC_Combination files.

Thanks for this post, it provided the missing link that I hadn't quite found and so helps clear up the details of the evening&weekend tariff that we were on from the MTC given. I can confirm the that Elexon portal does allow sign ups to access the MDD documents.

Phones4Chris

A number of the links for those specific MTC/SSC/MTDs on the previous page don't work any more.
The most useful "general" information can be found on the Wikipedia page, and the Ombudsman page about potential problems for people moving supplier from Prepayment to Credit is also useful.
Extensive searches have not revealed (so far) any comprehensive list of MTCs, in fact one source said that a full list was not available in the public domain!

To date the only ones that we know for certain that are common across the industry (along with the profile class) are -
01 801 for those on a Standard tariff, and 02 811 for those on an E7 tariff.

Based on one of my previous suppliers and tariffs, I thought I would post the ones I had including the LLFC for interest.
EDF Region 22 -
Complex metering - 2 separate meters - Analogue Standard tariff 01 500 010, Digital Off-peak tariff 02 574 430
Complex metering - Smart meter on standard tariff 02 573 030 , Digital Off-peak 02 574 430 (but Tariff was E7)
(The smart meter installation should have been BOTH tariffs but engineer wasn't given the correct info!)
New Smart Meter (Dual rate E7) 02 811 030

debitcardmayhem

FYI since I joined Octopus my MPANS have been
01 800 1 started SVT
01 800 1 Flux - export 01  900 932
01 900 1 IOF -  export 01 867 932 

Ildhund

Phones4Chris said:

Extensive searches have not revealed (so far) any comprehensive list of MTCs, ...

The table I referred to upthreads looks pretty comprehensive, with its ~8000 entries. There are in my copy (v. 354) of this table 550 different MTCs, with 899 the highest - it seems that MHHS is rendering this 30-year-old system obsolete. Nevertheless, it's helpful for those of us still in the dark ages wondering what a particular MTC means. Here's an extract from the table*, filtered to focus on my own MTC:
  

I should have updated to the current v. 367 of this table, but I hope the illustration is still valid.  

SSC 244 covers two TPRs, 40 and 206 which the engie document helpfully translates to 07:00-24:00 peak and 00:00-07:00 offpeak - a widespread and typical E7 regime.

---

*   To make it a bit more intelligible, there's a cross reference to the table that expands 4-letter MPIDs to actual company names. HYDE is just one of OVO's MPIDs, this one inherited from Scottish Hydro when OVO took over SSE's domestic clients a few years ago.

Scot_39

@Phones4Chris

Now that you are on Snug, we're expecting it to say something else - which might be 00 900

Sorry my post over in the Rosie1001 thread re 00 going domestic - was in response to your line above.

Deleted it now

And the comment was iirc a user and not even a customer service reps - re anything non standard domestic 01/02 blocking a move.

As you say - lets see.

Phones4Chris

@Scot_39, no worry, you could have left it there, it was sort of relevant, I just didn't want her thread to get derailed by loads of further discussion on MTCs.

@Ildhund the link you've just given requires the user to be logged in, so I'd think not a lot of use to the majority of users here. Also if it only goes to 899, that won't help with the recent mystery 900 which seems to come with PCs of 1 or 2, rather than perhaps an expected 00 when HH billing (according to the wiki).
Does that table give any insight into EDFs 96 MTC?

Hopefully @QrizB and @Qyburn might be able to come here and add some further info about their 900 codes (I'm not familiar with the quirks of their previous and current tariffs!).

debitcardmayhem

Phones4Chris said:

@Scot_39, no worry, you could have left it there, it was sort of relevant, I just didn't want her thread to get derailed by loads of further discussion on MTCs.

@Ildhund the link you've just given requires the user to be logged in, so I'd think not a lot of use to the majority of users here. Also if it only goes to 899, that won't help with the recent mystery 900 which seems to come with PCs of 1 or 2, rather than perhaps an expected 00 when HH billing (according to the wiki).
Does that table give any insight into EDFs 96 MTC?

Hopefully @QrizB and @Qyburn might be able to come here and add some further info about their 900 codes (I'm not familiar with the quirks of their previous and current tariffs!).

I am now on 900 Intelligent Octopus Flux   as posted above, found this table but ?? 
https://www.engie.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/TPR_Reference_sheet_2022.pdf
so far so mysterious 😎

debitcardmayhem

As for LLF it gets as clear as mud 
https://www.elexon.co.uk/bsc/operational/losses/
but google provides reams of links and I need to go to the hospital today,and I haven’t the time nor inclination today (if ever)