Your contractors do the work. You stay accountable.
Ofgem authorises the operator or supplier of a heat network. A managing agent, billing company or maintenance contractor can do the work, but the responsibility for compliance, and any penalty, stays with the authorised company. Caldora Compliance is the record that shows who did what, on which network, against which condition.
Appoint each firm for the service it provides
The conditions do not move when you appoint a contractor. Section A applies to every authorised person, Section B to the supplier and Section C to the operator, whoever does the work. A contractor is not authorised by Ofgem and carries none of them.
What you choose is which of your conditions each firm can see and work on for you. Name the firm, the service and the networks. The firm accepts the invitation, and from then on it sees only its part:
| Appointed for | Sees and works on, for you |
|---|---|
| Managing agent | Everything on the networks it is appointed to: every condition, complaints, incidents, priority customers and corrective actions. |
| Operation and maintenance | The technical conditions (C1, C2 and A12), incidents and corrective actions. Continuity arrangements (A14) are read only. |
| Metering and billing | The billing conditions (B6, B7 and B9 to B11), social obligations reporting (B12) and complaints. Fair pricing and cost allocation (A6 and A7), continuity arrangements (A14) and the priority services register condition (B8) are read only. |
| Customer service | The customer conditions (B1, B3 to B5 and B8), payment difficulties and disconnection (B9), complaints and the priority services register. |
A firm appointed to some of your networks sees only those networks. One firm can be appointed for more than one service, and then sees the parts of each.
A billing company or ESCo that is itself the supplier is different. It is authorised in its own right and carries Sections A and B, so Caldora invites it to the network as the supplier, with its own conditions, not as a contractor.
What stays with the duty holder
- Sign-off. Only your own people can sign a condition off. The record shows who signed it and when.
- Who comes in. Only your own people can invite users into your account. Your managing agent can appoint its own subcontractors on the networks it manages; you see the whole chain, can end any link, and can require your approval before a subcontractor gets any access.
- Ending access. End an appointment and the firm loses access to those networks at once.
Ask a firm for evidence, and get it filed in the right place
Send an evidence request to an appointed firm. The firm sees the requests sent to it, answers in Caldora, and the document is filed against the condition the request is about. You accept it. A firm cannot answer another firm’s request, accept its own response, or file against a network or condition the request does not cover.
For managing agents: one login across every client
- Every client that appoints you appears in My work, with its networks and what it has asked for.
- Switch between clients without a second account.
- Appoint your own operation and maintenance, metering and billing or customer service firms on the networks you manage. Where a client has turned approval on, each one waits for the client to approve it before it gets access.
- Your client sees your work as you do it, so the evidence for an Ofgem request is already in place.
- Connect your own billing or maintenance system to add evidence and records automatically, once the client approves it: integrations.
Responsible for networks yourself? See what heat network compliance involves and the 29 authorisation conditions.
Common questions
Can contractors have restricted access in heat network compliance software?
In Caldora, yes. A firm is appointed for a service on named networks, and it sees only the conditions and records it works on for you. A metering and billing agent, for example, works on the billing conditions and complaints, and can read but not change fair pricing and cost allocation (A6 and A7). The conditions themselves stay with the operator or supplier Ofgem has authorised.
Who signs off compliance when a managing agent does the work?
The duty holder. No appointed firm can sign off a condition or invite people into your account. Ofgem authorises the operator or supplier, and the responsibility for compliance stays with it when a contractor does the work.
What happens to a contractor's access when the contract ends?
End the appointment in Caldora and the firm's access to those networks ends at once. Access is worked out from the live appointments every time the firm uses the platform, so there is no separate permission to remember to remove.
Can a managing agent use one login for several clients?
Yes. Each client that appoints the agent appears in its My work list, and the agent switches between clients without a second account. The agent sees only the networks each client has appointed it to.