MP071 Second-Comer Charging

Problem Statement

The Explicit Charges Second-Comer Contributions requirement (SEC Section K7.8-7.11) enables a cost allocation mechanism for shared costs with respect to four specific Explicit Charge metrics: 'Low Volume (LV) Gateway Connection'; 'High Volume (HV) Gateway Connection'; 'Elective Service Evaluation'; and 'Parse & Correlate (P&C) support'. The requirement is prescribed using cost and temporal thresholds, to determine the contribution due by a second (or more) DCC User to an earlier DCC User that was offered one of these services, to rebate an element of the shared cost.

DCC is required to assess Second-Comer Contributions and the rebate of ‘relevant costs’ to an initial contributor, when a subsequent person uses the same services and is made an offer to recover shared costs. The quotes to the Users shall be both with the condition of all parties accepting a shared metric.

DCC believes this requirement is still relevant and feasible with respect to the Elective Service Evaluation and P&C support metrics; as there are certainly opportunities to align investigative work during an Elective Service Evaluation, or have a shared classroom scenario for P&C support/consultancy. However, the nature of the solution for providing both a LV Gateway Connection or a HV Gateway Connection is such that there are no common costs and thus no scope for cost sharing. Thus, the current onboarding process for a DCC User has inefficient and unnecessary complexity associated with a check related to shared costs for either a LV Gateway Connection or a HV Gateway Connection.

The full Draft Proposal can be found here.

Does this issue affect your company? Send us your comments to SEC.change@gemserv.com

After consideration of industry comments and discussions with the DCC, the Proposer believes that the most effective solution is to remove the specific requirements in SEC Section K which relate to assessing the second-comer charges for HV and LV Gateway Connections.
The result of this modification will be an accurate reflection of the ‘Second-Comer’ charging system.

This modification will have no impact on SEC Parties.

SEC Section K 'Charging Methodology'