As part of our delivering the recommendations made by the Energy Data Taskforce, we are modernising our approach to using metadata (metadata is data that describes data sets). We collect data from the energy industry to carry out our regulatory duties and we need metadata to ensure there is a common understanding of what that data is and how it is defined. Increasingly, we will publish metadata on this page (see below), providing more access to and transparency about the data we collect and work with.
The Taskforce have proposed the energy sector adopts the Dublin Core ‘Core Elements’ standard when sharing metadata through the recommended Data Catalogue. We will be updating our metadata practices ensuring they are interoperable with the Data Catalogue and this standard. We are keen to get your feedback on our new approach.
We will be ensuring our metadata is easy for all to use, but to do that in a sustainable manner, we need our metadata to be available in a way that makes it easy for computers to work with. We are starting by sharing ‘machine-readable’ metadata. This will help technical data users know what to expect from us. As our metadata work continues, the information will become more accessible to a much wider audience. We aim to store everything in a way that maximises self-service for users who define metadata and for those who access it.
If you have comments about our work on data, we’d welcome you views. Please contact OfgemDataServices@ofgem.gov.uk.