The Help page for the BM Reports web site is divided into following sections, each of which may be accessed independently, as follows:
This section explains the mechanics of how to access the site and search for information. It is structured as the answers to a series of frequently asked questions, as follows:

How do I use reports?

www.bmreports.com is a public website. When the site is accessed, the Electricity Data Summary page is displayed as the landing page. It provides a dashboard for short term information relevant to the Electricity Balancing Market in the UK.

All the other reports on the site can be accessed from the menu at the top of the page.

The set of reports which is available is described in the ‘Reports Guide - Overview of the main pages’ tab. These allow you to investigate events in the Balancing Mechanism at the overall market level, and then to drill down to look in more detail at the operation of individual BM Units. For an initial explanation of the concepts involved, please see the Market Principles tab section of the Site help.

Some reports, such as the BM Unit ones, require user input before running. For example you may need to specify a BM Unit Identifier and date. More information on this is specified in this help text.

What are self-maintaining pages?

Many of the pages are self-maintaining as indicated by the following icon: These pages will periodically auto-refresh to show the latest data.

How do I select a date (e.g. Settlement Date)?

Date can be selected using the date picker. Initially, if no default value is applied for the page following text ‘(yyyy-mm-dd)’ is displayed next to the date. You must click on the blue icon  to view a calendar and select a relevant date. There is a provision to traverse through the month and year. Once a date is selected, the date picker closes and data becomes available. If you then open the date picker again, the selected date is highlighted with a blue bubble. Note that the current date will also be indicated in a bold font. Typically, historic pages have a date picker.

How do I select a Settlement Period?

Settlement Period can be selected using the settlement period picker. By default, if there is a provision to Select All, then ‘All’ is displayed next to the settlement period; else ‘1’ will be displayed by default. User must click on the blue icon  to view a control with buttons for each settlement period. When the button corresponding to the settlement period of interest is clicked, any other selected settlement period button gets unclicked. Once the settlement period is selected the key board retracts back. For some data items, an additional ‘select all’ button is provided to enable selection of all settlement periods. Typically, historic pages have a settlement period picker.

How do I select a Time round the half hour?

Half Hourly Time picker is used in the historic SO-SO Prices page. You must click on the blue icon  next to the ‘Time’ label to view a time picker and select a relevant start time. You should select an hour (00 to 23) and minute (00 or 30) option or ‘*’. ‘*’ implies all times. Once you select, the time picker retracts back. The selected time in the form of hh:mm is shown if it is selected; else * will be shown in the box next to the label.

How do I select a Zone?

For the Zonal data pages, a provision to select a Zone is provided. You must click on the button corresponding to the Zone of interest e.g. B1. When one zone is selected any other previously selected zones are deselected.

How do I select a Term?

For the long term forecasts, a provision to select a Term (1/2/3/4/5 year ahead) is provided. You must click on the button corresponding to the ‘Year Ahead’ of interest e.g. B1. When one option is selected any other previously selected options is deselected.

How can I access BM Unit Information?

A list of all BM Units and Ids and BSC Parties can also be found on the ELEXON website, as downloads from https://www.elexonportal.co.uk/registeredbmunits

The BM Unit related balancing data (Physical, Dynamic, Derived, Bid Offer or Balancing Services Volumes) can be accessed directly through the menu for one or more BM Units for a particular settlement period. Alternatively, BM unit data can be searched for one or more settlement periods for one BM Unit through the ‘Search By BM Unit’ functionality in the Balancing Menu.

How do I use the BM Unit auto-suggest based search facility in ‘Search By BM Unit’ and in other BM Unit Data pages?

In the ‘Search By BM Unit’ it is mandatory to select one BM Unit. The auto-suggest based search functionality has drop down textual input controls with ‘Lead Party Name’, ‘BM Unit Type’, ‘BM Unit ID’ and ‘NGC BM Unit Name’ as input field parameters is provided. When the user starts typing in any of these input fields a list of possible values will appear based on ‘like’ of the input characters (partial match, not case sensitive) and the selected values in the other input fields. Once one of the values is selected in one of the boxes, values in other input boxes are populated if single possible value exists for that input control. If more than one possible value exists in other input controls for a selected value in an input control, then you will have to select a value from the list.

E.g. If you start typing ‘Bri…’ in the Lead Party Name, an option of  ‘British Gas Trading Ltd’ will appear in the list (which you can select. Now if you click on BM Unit Type, you may see multiple values such as ‘G’, ‘E’ or ’T’. Assuming generation ‘G’ is selected. Then when you click/type in the ‘BM Unit ID’ or ‘NGC BM Unit Name’, the list of BM Units with lead party as ‘British Gas Trading Ltd’ and BM Unit Type as ‘G’ will be appear e.g. (2__ABGAS000, 2__BBGAS000,…) . One of the BM Units from the list will have to be selected for ‘Search By BM Unit’. 

 

For the other BM Unit data pages in Balancing (Physical, Dynamic, Derived, Bid Offer or Balancing Services Volumes) it is not mandatory to select one BM Unit. So if a party is the input criteria filled, results for all the BM Units for that party will be shown (for the selected settlement period) after the ‘View’ button is clicked.

 

Additional Information - The ‘BM Unit Type’ field can have values with the following meanings:

T - Directly Connected to Transmission System
E - Embedded in Distribution System
I  - Interconnector User
G - Supplier (base)
S - Supplier (additional)
M - Other

What is ‘Select NRT’ on the BM Unit Data pages?

The ‘Select NRT’ will enable searching for the latest available (‘Near Real Time’) BM Unit data. This is available on the direct BM Unit data pages (Physical, Dynamic, Derived, Bid Offer) and the ‘Search by BM Unit’. Selecting NRT will show ‘NRT’ in Settlement Date and Settlement Period input control boxes initially. When the results are loaded after clicking View or the Physical/Dynamic/Derived/Bid Offer button, ‘NRT’ text is replaced by the Settlement Date and Settlement Period of the latest available (NRT) data.

How do I find a BM Unit's Fuel Type?

A spreadsheet showing a BM Unit’s primary fuel type is provided on this site here. This spreadsheet does not cover any secondary fuels used by the BM Units and is updated upon receipt of updated information from National Grid.

How do I control what data appears on a graph?

Most of the reports display data plotted in a chart with a table detailing the values. Below each chart there is a corresponding key with checkboxes next to each field. These checkboxes toggle the visibility of each field displayed on the chart. The Y-axis scale on the graphs automatically adjusts to reflect the data being shown.

How do I download data in CSV or XML format?

The reports on this site allow you to download the displayed data in Comma Separated Values (CSV) or XML format. To view or save data in this format click the CSV or XML icon on the report page, follow the instructions below:

Internet Explorer Users

  1. Click on the CSV or XML icon
  2. This opens a ‘Save’ dialog box
  3. Select a location to save the file to
  4. If required change name
  5. Click ‘Save’

What date and time format does this site use?

All dates are represented in the format: YYYY-MM-DD.
For example 1st February 2000 is 2000-02-01.  

All date times are represented in the format: YYYY-MM-DD HHMM
For example 1st February 2000 7:00 PM is 2000-02-01 1900.  All Date Times are displayed in GMT.

How do I calculate Settlement Periods?

Settlement Periods are always based on Local Time and Period 1 is always 0000hrs (midnight) Local Time. A Normal Day has 48 Settlement Periods, whereas a Short Day (clocks go forward) has 46 and a Long Day (clocks go back) has 50.
A conversion table between Settlement Period and Local/GMT Time is shown below:

 

SETTLEMENT PERIOD WINTER SHORT DAY SUMMER LONG DAY
GMT GMT BST GMT BST BST GMT
1 0000 0000   2300 0000 0000 2300
2 0030 0030   2330 0030 0030 2330
3 0100 0100 0200 0000 0100 0100 0000
4 0130 0130 0230 0030 0130 0130 0030
5 0200 0200 0300 0100 0200 0200 0100
7 0300 0300 0400 0200 0300   0200
9 0400 0400 0500 0300 0400   0300
... ... ... ... ... ...   ...
41 2000 2000 2100 1900 2000   1900
43 2100 2100 2200 2000 2100   2000
45 2200 2200 2300 2100 2200   2100
47 2300     2200 2300   2200
48 2330     2230 2330   2230
49             2300
50             2330

What are the browser requirements for this site?

This site has been written for Internet Explorer (version 9.0) and Firefox (version 24.0) and has been tested and is supported on those browser versions. The use of IE 9 and Firefox 24 is recommended for optimal performance.