SMS helps energy suppliers future proof against market uncertainty through data solutions

With rising wholesale gas costs continuing to pile pressure on energy providers – causing 13 suppliers to collapse in recent weeks – things are extremely tough out there for the supplier market at the moment, and indeed for the many brilliant energy professionals who’ve suddenly found themselves out of work as a consequence.

Here at SMS, where we serve the industry with metering, data, and other energy solutions (services whose very purpose is to help our customers reduce their overheads) we see our role right now as more important than ever.

As we work with our clients in the industry to help find solutions for the additional resource pressures caused by the current market conditions, we’re continuing to recruit the expertise that make our services so valued at times like these.

And what could be more valuable than having experts on board that acutely understand the challenges that energy suppliers face?

That is why SMS recently hired Scott Watson, who joins us from People’s Energy after the company’s untimely exit from the market. Scott joins the SMS family as Sales Manager responsible for wide commercial activities to support our current energy supplier partners, as well as to grow our customer base. Having been in the industry for 14 years, Scott has a broad range of experience across domestic, SME, commercial and third party intermediaries.

Scott says: “It is extremely difficult for energy supply companies at the moment, so it is important that they unlock any business cost savings and maximise the opportunities that the smart meter rollout programme has created.

“It’s important for suppliers to realise that the rollout of smart meters is not merely an obligation to be complied with. It is so much more than that. Smart meters, and the data and energy-saving solutions enabled by them, have the ability not just to help suppliers save money and resources today, but future-proof these organisations and keep them competitive for the long-term future.

“At a time when the energy supply market is so precarious, the data that smart meters provide is a precious and valuable commodity.”

Scott believes that there are many in the energy supply industry who still don’t fully understand the benefits of partnering with the right company for Data Management & Settlement services.

“I recently did a poll on LinkedIn which asked energy supply professionals what the smart metering programme means to their business,” he says. “I was shocked that 41% of professionals who voted still see smart meters as another industry box ticking exercise. These are people who work for well-known industry companies, and so it is worrying that there is still uncertainty on the benefits available to them.”

As SMS’s new Sales Manager, it’s Scott’s mission to help these businesses understand the benefits and deliver the solutions that make them possible, such as SMS’s industry-leading Elective Half-Hourly Settlement (EHHS) Service.

“We’re working with our partners to take them on a journey that explains everything they need to know about the opportunities that can be grasped through smart meters and the related data solutions,” says Scott. “For example, early adopters of our Elective Half-Hourly Settlement (EHHS) service, such as Social Energy, are already seeing that in addition to enabling new competitive tariffs and energy-as-a-service offerings, EHHS in general makes the settlement and billing processes more accurate, greatly enhancing business efficiency. It’s solutions like these that could help energy suppliers at a time when they need it most.”

READ MORE ABOUT EHHS 

• Early adopters of half-hourly settlement stand to benefit as Ofgem announces MHHS
• Why data settlement is a key cog in our modern energy transition