Prepare your business for energy changes

Industry changes have been announced to energy settlement – the process by which energy companies record customers' consumption and match it to the energy they buy to meet the demand.

The aim is to make sure small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large industrial and commercial customers that use the most energy are settled on a half-hourly basis. That means we can match the energy we buy with the energy these customers use. But who will the changes affect? And how can your business prepare for them?

What is P272?

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P272 is an industry-wide change, originally progressed through Elexon, the company which helps to ensure that electricity generators and suppliers are working together. Having been approved by Ofgem, P272 must be completed by April 2017, by which time all suppliers must settle these customers’ consumption on a half-hourly basis. All energy companies will be introducing the changes, which will affect some 160,000 energy meters nationwide.

What does the change mean?

The main change is to stop reading some meters monthly and record consumption automatically every half hour instead. This will take the estimates out of monitoring energy use and enable the networks to model use more accurately. For some customers, depending on who they’re supplied by, this could mean a change to how bills look, or how charges are structured.

Which businesses will be affected by the changes?

P272 will chiefly target larger SME energy users whose energy settlements are calculated on a non-half-hourly basis, with an electricity meter in profile class 5, 6, 7 or 8, or an AMR meter. The changes mean these customers will have their energy settlements converted to a half-hourly measurement. Companies can check their meter type on their bill.

What's the difference between half-hourly and non-half-hourly measurements?

Under current arrangements, non-half-hourly sites are allocated an energy use profile for their industry, based on typical usage across the sector. By contrast, half-hourly sites have energy meters that record a business’s energy consumption every 30 minutes, providing more detailed information about energy use and allowing District Network Operators (DNOs) to manage their network capacities more precisely.

Why is this happening now?

Ofgem has required energy suppliers to ensure that businesses in profile classes 5 to 8 (also known as maximum demand sites) have had advanced meters capable of recording half-hourly data for some time. The process is part of an industry-wide, regulatory change to improve the measurement of energy consumption. Ofgem will require suppliers to implement these changes by the deadline of 1 April 2017. Each impacted customer, when they renew their contract or switch supplier after 5 November 2015 will have to be switched to half-hourly settlement within 9 weeks. This is because of another industry change which supports P272 – this change is called P322 and means that the industry and customers know what the timescales for moving to half-hourly settlement are.

How will it affect my business?

If you're an E.ON customer you don't have to do anything. We contact all of our customers involved and we will take care of all the necessary changes for our customers impacted by P272 and P322, and explain how they might affect your business. This will include any changes to the overall billing and pricing structures that are already in place.

Find out more

Our team is here to help. Click here for more information, or call us on 02476 424242. Were here 8:30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8:30am to 4pm on Friday.