How does data sharing for customers with smart meters work?

The energy regulator, Ofgem, has made changes to the rules around how energy suppliers collect and use customers’ consumption data from their electricity smart meters.

We will now begin to collect half-hourly electricity consumption data from smart meters, with customers’ permission, and will use it for the industry settlement process. Find out more about this below.

Right now, customers have the choice over how often their electricity smart meters record consumption data, which the meter then sends to the supplier for billing purposes – the customer can choose from half-hourly, daily or monthly data options.

What is settlement?

Energy Electricity suppliers typically buy from generators based on forecasts of how much electricity the supplier thinks its customers will use, and Settlement is an industry process that calculates the difference between the amounts purchased and what is actually used. Energy suppliers and generators trade electricity in half-hourly periods. The settlement process is needed to sort these differences for each half hour of every day.

Most traditional meters record electricity usage over periods of weeks or months but are unable to show when the energy was used, let alone how much was used in each half hour. The settlements process has therefore relied on forecasts and profiling to estimate this. But with more and more homes making use of solar panels and EV chargers, we need the energy system to be flexible to these changing demands, so we need more accuracy than ever before.

How smart meters help

With smart meters, reads from each half-hour can be taken and shared, rather than using estimates. This means that energy suppliers have an improved indication of how much electricity is actually being used in each period throughout the day. They can then buy more accurately, which results in less waste. Overall, the benefits may include lower bills, reduced environmental impact, improved security of supply and enhanced customer service. Ofgem, the energy regulator, predicts that using Half Hourly meter data in settlements will see net benefits to British consumers of between £1.6bn and £4.5bn between now and 2045.

How does this affect me?

We will begin by writing to you to ask for permission to access your half-hourly data for settlement purposes. If you agree, we will collect your half-hourly consumption data from your smart meter and enter it into the industry settlement process as described above.

Here’s some more information on data sharing for customers with smart meters.