specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: Elexon
providerId: elexon
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - FinOps
  - Cost Management
  - FOCUS
  - Electricity
  - UK Energy Market
  - BMRS
  - Zero Cost
description: >
  FOCUS-aligned FinOps definition for the Elexon Insights Solution API. Elexon
  provides the BMRS API as a free public service under its statutory mandate as the
  BSC Company for Great Britain's electricity market. There are no usage fees, no
  subscription charges, and no metered billing. The only financial consideration for
  consumers is the cost of infrastructure used to consume the API (compute, egress,
  storage for cached data). From a FinOps perspective this is a zero-cost external
  dependency, and chargeback models should allocate only internal compute and
  infrastructure costs to teams consuming the API.
sources:
  - https://developer.data.elexon.co.uk/
  - https://github.com/elexon-data/insights-docs/blob/main/docs/insights_data_platform.md
  - https://www.elexon.co.uk/bsc/data/balancing-mechanism-reporting-agent/copyright-licence-bmrs-data/
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
publisherName: Elexon Limited
serviceCategory: Analytics and Data
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Free (Statutory Public Service)
  pricingUnit: N/A
  pricingCurrency: N/A
  invoicingCadence: none
  commitments:
    - type: No Cost
      description: >
        All Elexon Insights Solution API endpoints are provided at no cost to the
        consumer. Elexon funds the service as part of its BSC Company obligations.
        There are no paid tiers, metered fees, or commitments required.
meters:
  - name: api.requests
    description: >
      API requests to Insights Solution endpoints. No charge; recorded here only for
      internal capacity planning and vendor dependency tracking purposes.
    unit: request
    focusServiceCategory: Analytics and Data
    chargeAmount: 0
  - name: iris.connections
    description: >
      Concurrent IRIS real-time push connections. No charge; logged for internal
      infrastructure planning.
    unit: connection
    focusServiceCategory: Analytics and Data
    chargeAmount: 0
chargebackRecommendation: >
  Since Elexon's API carries no direct cost, chargeback should focus on internal
  infrastructure: compute cost of services polling or processing the API, egress
  costs for data transferred from cloud regions to Elexon's servers, and storage
  costs for locally cached or replicated BMRS data. Tag consuming services with
  the business domain (trading, settlements, forecasting, compliance) to allocate
  these indirect costs accurately. Attribution to Elexon as an external dependency
  should be captured in your vendor inventory even though the monetary cost is zero.