Energy efficiency: are you making the most of your half-hourly data?

One year ago, over 100,000 organisations were impacted by the introduction of P272 legislation.

If you were one of these businesses, you’ll have seen significant changes to the way your energy consumption is billed. But can you say you’ve taken maximum advantage of the energy efficiency opportunities that this has opened up?

P272: a brief review

Since 1 April 2017, P272 guidelines set up by Ofgem have required energy suppliers to automatically use more detailed energy usage data, known as half-hourly consumption data (HH) to calculate customers’ bills.

For customers with electricity meters in the 05-08 class and bills based on just a single read per month, this meant making the switch to a HH supply with actual consumption being read every half hour over a full year.

One of the most significant changes if you are a new HH customer is that your supplier will be generating your unit rate based on how and when you consume your power.   If you use a lot of energy at peak times this could have impacted your costs over the past year – particularly if you have not taken action to reduce or shift your demand.

Are you making the most of your half-hourly data?

Though P272 may have exposed your business to extra costs and stepped up the necessity to scrutinise more complicated bills, on the flip side, it has also offered a golden opportunity to increase sustainability.

Having access to improved consumption data means businesses can now analyse their energy profile and utilise this information to inform a smarter energy management strategy.

However, it is a reality that many organisations are still not making the most of this opportunity – whether they’ve become a new HH customer, or had a HH meter prior to P272 coming into force. For these businesses, changing to a HH supply may have had a detrimental impact – especially those who consume a lot of energy during peak periods.

Unless you have an energy management strategy in place, using your consumption data to monitor and control your energy usage and reduce your consumption at peak times, you will have likely seen increases in your non-commodity costs (particularly between November and February when the Capacity Market charge came into effect).

For #energyconfident organisations like our clients, using HH consumption data to employ a smart energy management strategy, has not only enabled these businesses to reduce the billing risks associated with HH supplies through our expert Bureau service, but also ensured they take full advantage of their HH supply in order to improve energy efficiency, and thus save up to 20% on energy spend.

Yet to benefit from your HH meter? We can help!

If your business is yet to see the advantages of changing to a HH supply, or has seen an increase in costs as a result of P272, then we can help.

As an expert Data Collector (DC) and Data Aggregator (DA), we provide and analyse your HH consumption data to inform a bespoke energy management strategy. Our ability to act as your DC/DA in the first instance can immediately save on costs if you’ve been automatically assigned a provider as part of your energy contract, as well as offering the benefit of a single point of contact for your energy data.

While our Procurement team can use this information to distinguish the best-suited contract type based on your profile, and our Bureau service will provide bill validation to ensure you’re being charged correctly, the greatest savings to be made are dependent on how well you use this data to better control your energy use and improve efficiency.

Save energy with SmartVision Pro

Our state-of-the-art SmartVision Pro energy management platform gives you maximum visibility of your consumption, helping you promote energy conservation measures and avoid peak times through automatic reporting and alerts.

Through this highly-intelligent, intuitive and user-friendly software, it’s possible to inspect consumption patterns, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and even forecast and budget for the future, giving you the ability to easily monitor, identify and adjust your energy usage to ultimately become a more sustainable and competitive business.

Using SmartVision Pro, you can now begin to get the best out of your half-hourly data, while our energy efficiency team can unlock even greater savings.

By combining your data with our years of energy consultancy expertise, we can advise on and supply the resources, management and funding you require to implement the best-suited energy efficiency projects for your organisation.

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