Half Hourly Meter Data Market Explained
In the UK if you run a large business your electricity is most likely to be captured each half hour by special meters that have a data point back to the energy provider. So how does all this work ?
For businesses that have a peak load at any time during the day of more than 100kWh their electricity meter will be on half hourly meters that record the amount of electric your premises are using each and every half hour during the day and night and sent automatically via a data line back to your energy supplier.
How does a half hourly meter work ?
The actual data collected is terms as interval energy data and contains a lot of information that if used correctly can help a business determine what and how the electric supply is used. There are many software packages on the market or that can be run from online websites that use your data to provide analysis and some interpretation on what’s going on.
Does my business have a half hourly meter ?
The half hourly meters (HHM) are almost mandatory in the UK for larger businesses and you can tell if your business has one either by having a look at your meter in your building which will have a number with a prefix of “00″ or in general terms if you are paying more than £30,000 per year in electricity then you’ll likely be in this scenario. As part of the new carbon reduction commitment scheme a half hourly automatic meter reading (AMR) meter will have to be installed if a business’s peak load for the past 3 months is higher than 100kwh in any day.
If you have this type of meter then your energy contract must be on these types of meters. Data can only be collected by approved data collectors and managed by an approved meter operator (MOP). When searching for half hourly electricity tariffs you need to be aware that not all energy providers will offer the same types of services so you can either research the market yourself or get a broker to undertake these services for you (although most will charge you a management fee).
What types of meters are there ?
There are four main types that the environment agency describe although most larger businesses fall under the first category:
- Mandatory – found in most larger organisations and are required by law because of the amount of electric energy the premises consume each year
- Voluntary – fitted by the premises owner because they either wanted to use the data for energy efficiency or wanted up to the minute and accurate billing information to manage their finances
- Light – again a voluntary installation sometimes called smart meters which are more common place with domestic premises or automatic meter readers (AMR) installed for the same reasons as above
- Pseudo – usually used by councils for street lighting etc for unmetered supplies (UMS) and are quite rare in the UK
Half hourly data collection management and energy efficiency
Most of the major energy providers will allow you to manage the data collected from your half hourly meters on their websites so you can see what is happening but it may take a trained professional to actually interpret the data and put actions plans into place so you can save energy in your business and reduce your consumption and costs of electricity that has been used.
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