Where to go?
The CACoP have now produced a central website (cacop.co.uk) where any interested party can access information relating to CACoP's activities, including meeting dates, the central modification register, the joint working practice and newsletters outlining the activities of the member codes of GB.
the CACoP website can be found here
What is the CACoP?
As part of Ofgem’s Code Governance Review the Code Administration Code of Practice (CACoP), was established.
The CACoP is a cross energy industry code document and aims to provide consistency in the approach and level of service associated with Codes modification processes.
It contains 14 principles to facilitate convergence and transparency in code Modification processes and to help protect the interests of small market participants and consumers through various means including increased use of plain English in Change Reports.
What are the principles?
The 14 CACoP principles are summarised below:
- Code Administrators shall be critical friends;
- Documentation published by Code Administrators shall be in clear English;
- Information will be promptly and publicly available to users;
- The Code Administration Code of Practice will be reviewed periodically and subject to amendment by users;
- Code Administrators shall support processes which enable users to access a ‘pre-Modification’ process to discuss and develop Modifications;
- A proposer of a Modification will retain ownership of the detail of their solution;
- Code Administrators will facilitate alternative solutions to issues being developed to the same degree as an original solution;
- Estimates of implementation costs to central systems will be produced and consulted upon prior to a Modification being recommended for approval;
- Legal text will be produced and consulted upon prior to a Modification being recommended for approval;
- Modifications will be consulted upon and easily accessible to users, who will be given reasonable time to respond;
- There will be flexibility for implementation, to allow proportionate delivery times and realisation of benefits;
- The Code Administrator will annually report on Key Performance Indicators;
- Code Administrators will ensure cross Code coordination to progress changes efficiently where modifications impact multiple Codes; and
- Code Administrators shall support prospective energy innovators.
What is a Critical Friend?
Code Administrators, as part of their role, act as Critical Friends to code users. The role of the Critical Friend is described in CACoP as a Code Administrator who provides support to all with an interest in the code modification process and consumer representatives. The Code Administrators have identified a list of Top 5 activities they undertake as a Critical Friend.
Those top 5 activities can be found here.
The Energy Networks Association as Code Administrator for the Distribution Code must comply with the principles set out in the CACoP. The CACoP document is available to download on the Ofgem website.
If you have any comments or suggestions for improvements with regards to the CACoP, please email them to dcode@energynetworks.org.
