SEC Newsletter 13 March 2020

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the SECAS newsletter.

Thank you to those who attended our Introduction on the SEC event on Tuesday 10 March. We hope that you found the day interesting and informative. In case you missed it, SEC Parties can download the event presentation slides here.

Read on to find out how you can participate in this year’s Customer Satisfaction, become a Sub-Committee Member and find out who was the lucky CodeWorks competition winner.

Anik Abdullah (SECAS) giving a presentation on ‘Communicating with Devices’

Operational Metrics Review Report – have your say!

If you have an interest in the metrics used to measure the DCC service, then now is the chance to have your say. Having listened to feedback from industry, the Operations Group commissioned a review to identify improvements in the metrics used to measure the DCC service.
Some of the issues identified include instances where:

  • The reported performance is contradictory to the operational experience of Users;
  • The reported metrics, although correct, don’t reflect the impact of performance issues on Users; and
  • There are gaps in reporting – important aspects of operational performance are not being addressed by the current set of metrics.

SECAS has engaged with subject matter experts and industry to review and recommend improvements to the reporting moving forward, and the draft report is here. We welcome your feedback so that this can be incorporated into the Final Report, which will be presented to the SEC Panel at its April meeting.

Please respond with your comments by Friday 27 March.

 

Share your feedback in the Annual SECAS Customer Satisfaction Survey 

The annual  SECAS Customer Satisfaction Survey is a great opportunity for you to share your thoughts and feedback on our services and how we support you as a SEC Party. The survey will only take 30 minutes to complete.

To participate in the survey, please respond to the email invitation from the SECAS Helpdesk indicating your consent by close on Friday 20 March 2020 and DJS Research who are conducting the research will be in touch.

 

Operations Group Update 

The Operations Group aims to resolve operational matters between DCC Users and the DCC, to support the Smart Meter rollout and beyond.  Here is a brief update on what they are currently working on:

  • Investigating numerous problem Alerts which impact your DCC User services. The Group aims to introduce a fix to resolve the issue and provide a good User experience;
  • Developing a policy that enables information on Operational issues to be shared with SEC Parties; and
  • DCC service providers who are inconsistent or underachieving in key performance must provide remediation plans which the Group oversee. The plans aim to improve their performance and benefit SEC Party experience.

 

The Security Controls Framework has been updated

On 26 February 2020, the Security Sub-Committee approved Version 1.21 of the Security Controls Framework (SCF) for publication. The updates include new security assurance statuses, clarified Security Self-Assessment questions and a clarification on SEC Section G5.22. Both clean and tracked changed versions of the documents can be found here.

 

Do you have an upcoming Security Self Assessment? If so please use the updated the SECAS Validation Workbook V1.10 here.

 

Would you like to join the Testing Advisory Group?

Becoming a Sub-Committee Member is a great way to keep up to date and help influence industry. The Testing Advisory Group meets twice a month and is looking for Large and Small Suppliers to join.

If you are interested in joining or nominating an individual please contact our SECAS Helpdesk.

 

CodeWorks Competition – the winner is announced!

We are delighted to announce the winner of our CodeWorks competition is a member of Good Energy Ltd. Thank you to all those who took part, and for those who didn’t win we hope you are finding value in CodeWorks.

Keep a look out for Phase 3 which will enable you to better identify what you need to complete your Privacy and Security Assessments.

 

The following Draft Proposals are new problems or issues that the Proposers believe should be addressed.

Draft Proposal Issue raised
DP118 ‘Communications Hub Finance Charges’ As the number of monthly financing payments increase, the way in which the DCC invoice for Communications Hubs will become untenable.

 

DP119 ‘CH Alert Storm Consolidation’ Device Alert Storms are generating large numbers of Alerts which are impacting networks, the Data Service Provider and Service User capacity. With the Smart Meter Roll-out, the number of Alert Storms is set to increase.

 

DP120 ‘Correcting DUIS Matrix for SRV7.7 Eligible Users’ Electricity Distributors are eligible users of Service Reference Variant 7.7 ‘Read Auxiliary Load Switch Data’, which was implemented through SECMP0025. However, the ‘Service Request Matrix’ within the DCC User Interface Specification was inadvertently not updated when the modification was implemented.

 

 

DCC Publications

The DCC has published the following:

 

BEIS Publications 

BEIS has published the following:

 

Ofgem Publications

Ofgem has published the following:

 

Would you like to join the SECAS Team? 

Do you have passion for delivering exceptional client service and attention to detail? We are currently recruiting for a Stakeholder Support Co-ordinator to join our SECAS Party Support team. For more information please visit the recruitment page here.

 

SECAS Helpdesk 

Please contact the SECAS Helpdesk with any questions and a member of the team will be happy to help.
Helpdesk hours are Monday-Friday 9-5pm (excluding bank holidays).

 

Date   Meeting, Event or Deadline  
13 March   SEC Panel Meeting 78 
17 March   Smart Metering Key Infrastructure Policy Management Policy Meeting 67 
18 March  Small Suppliers Teleconference  (contact SECAS Helpdesk for invitation)
23 March  Operations Group Meeting 30x 
25 March  Change Board Meeting 40 
25 March  Testing Advisory Group Meeting 65 
25 March   Security Sub-Committee Meeting 97 
31 March  Change Sub-Committee Meeting 13  
1 April  Monthly Working Group meeting – April 2020 
2 April  Technical Architecture and Business Architecture Sub-Committee Meeting 52 
7 April  Operations Group Meeting 31 
8 April  Security Sub-Committee Meeting 98