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Central Market Agency (CMA)

Central Market Agency (CMA), Scotland

Case Study– Central Market Agency (CMA), Scotland

What It Is

The Central Market Agency Ltd (CMA) operates and administers the central market arrangements for Scotland’s competitive non-household water and wastewater retail market. Open to competition since 2008, this market allows business customers to choose their water and wastewater retailer. CMA exists to ensure the market functions efficiently, transparently, and fairly.

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CMA manages the Central Market Systems and processes that underpin switching, settlement, data assurance, market enquiries, and change management, acting as a neutral facilitator between retailers and wholesalers.

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C&C Group serves as CMA’s technology partner, responsible for the design, operation, and support of the Central Market Systems. These systems underpin all market transactions and data flows, enabling CMA to deliver reliable market operations and enquiry services. The partnership operates under a long-term, managed service contract, extended in December 2025 under a 3+2-year term, reflecting the platform’s critical and enduring role in the market

Scalable by Design

In January 2021, C&C Group was engaged to redesign CMA’s Central Systems to meet the evolving needs of the Scottish water market. The requirement was a future-proof platform capable of scaling to at least ten times the existing capacity across transaction processing, concurrent users, data storage, and settlement calculations.

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The solution supports volume, functional, user, and technical scalability. Core processing services are stateless and optimised for high-throughput batch and near-real-time processing, enabling large increases in transaction volumes without degrading performance.

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The architecture is platform-agnostic, capable of running in a cloud environment (Microsoft Azure) or on locally owned infrastructure. Local infrastructure is scalable horizontally or vertically, with resilient failover to Azure, ensuring uninterrupted operations.

E2E Value and Benefits

In August 2022, a fully redesigned database architecture and core services were deployed. A typical day’s transactions now process in six minutes, compared to over 90 minutes previously, while settlement calculations reduced from several hours to under 15 minutes. This transformation improved market efficiency, operational resilience, and enquiry responsiveness.

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The platform provides secure, reliable market messaging, reporting, and data handling, supported by segregated databases and applications. Public-facing interfaces undergo regular penetration testing to ensure robust security.

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C&C Group delivers services through a managed service model, combining bespoke system development with continuous operation and enhancements. This model reduces CMA’s operational burden while ensuring high availability, compliance, and auditability.

Strategic Impact

The platform exemplifies a governance-driven, partnership-based approach suitable for complex, regulated markets. The redesign maintained all external interfaces, ensuring continuous service for market participants.

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The cutover was achieved with only a 12-hour planned outage on a Friday evening, supported by a delta migration covering all market data since market opening in 2008. This minimised risk, ensured regulatory compliance, and strengthened confidence in the CMA’s operational resilience.

Outcome for Central Market Agency (CMA)

CMA now operates a scalable, future-ready market platform supporting long-term growth and regulatory change. It provides the CMA’s customer with a fresh and modern way to interrogate the central systems to identify key information akin to the EES platform which includes:

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  • The full transactional history for a meter / SPID

  • General Site Information (including address)

  • Charging Information (changes that can impact settlement charge, such as rateable value updates)

  • Service Elements (Meters (including GIS location and address), unmeasurable, property & road drainage)

  • Supplier History

  • Site History

  • Customer Details

  • Settlement Charges

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Key outcomes include:

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  • Tenfold headroom for transaction volumes and system growth

  • Improved operational efficiency and enquiry resolution

  • B2B High volume api

  • Enhanced resilience, security, and auditability

  • Reduced operational risk via a managed service model that combines development, operation, and continuous improvement

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This platform enables CMA to deliver a robust, efficient, and compliant market service, ensuring Scotland’s water market continues to operate effectively and competitively.

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