A word on...the Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement
Ben Whitelam, Director of Data & Metering Services and Commercial at npower Business Solutions, discusses the potential impact of the Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement reform and what it means for businesses.
2025 will see the start of one of the biggest transformations to the electricity market to date – the Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) reform, which is set to bring with it greater energy data insight for organisations across the UK. So, what is MHHS and why is it important to your business?
The past few years have seen huge volatility in the wholesale energy markets. The UK government has outlined its ambitions and initial policy plans to help bring energy stability and security, while also hitting its clean power targets.
To achieve this, the energy market needs complete reform, including the ability to better manage all aspects of electricity more efficiently, particularly with the decrease in 24/7 fossil fuel generation, as businesses move to more intermittent renewable power sources.
Energy UK describes MHHS as “a vital enabler of the creation of a flexible, clean retail electricity market, ultimately supporting the UK in reaching Net Zero”.
It will unlock more granular and timely data to understand how and when all consumers use electricity, providing an incredible level of visibility into how much electricity is being consumed for every 30-minute period throughout the day and night. That’s 48 data points for every UK meter in every 24-hour period.
Having access to all this additional insight will help to support an energy system that can forecast, generate and distribute electricity far more efficiently than ever before.
MHHS and the benefits to businesses
There will be several benefits for business energy users. As well as more granular cost allocation, they will have access to new products, more innovation, new technologies and flexibility services from their energy suppliers, and ultimately a more cost efficient energy system.
For example, MHHS will support the more flexible use of electricity, which we’re already starting to see with ‘time of use’ tariffs emerging to incentivise the use of energy at times of abundant supply and away from peak demand periods.
Changes under MHHS
Most of the migration work will happen behind the scenes, and there should be no disruption to service. Meters will be reclassified into three new segments replacing the current Half-Hourly or Non-Half Hourly split.
While it is not a mandated requirement under MHHS for energy meters to be changed, for many organisations, there are real benefits to installing or having smart or advanced Automated Meter Reading (AMR) meters, as they provide a highly detailed and dynamic picture of your energy use.
In terms of other changes, there will be a new name for your metering agent. You may also see changes to the way your electricity supply meter is classified and the terminology on your energy invoices.
We believe there is a real opportunity for businesses who actively engage with the MHHS and we have been working closely with our customers to help them understand what this means after our recent Business Energy Tracker report revealed that 53% of the businesses said they weren’t aware of the reform, and the impact it could have.
Greater data insight
The greater data insight MHHS will bring could result in potential energy saving and carbon reduction opportunities. In addition, MHHS also provides the option for businesses to choose a metering agent and services that suit their specific needs.
Key to this will be making energy metering and monitoring a business priority, and ensuring you understand and optimise your energy data – if this useful data is not being analysed correctly, then it is meaningless.
An online visualisation platform can enable you to run detailed reports, look at consumption forecasts, compare sites and set up alerts if your energy use has exceeded expected levels. This means you can pinpoint opportunities to invest in measures to better manage your energy consumption, such as energy efficiency measures, helping you reduce costs and emissions even further.
2025 will be a year of change as the MHHS migration starts. It will provide businesses with a wealth of energy data that, if used correctly, could result in cost and carbon savings. This really is the decade of data and it will pay dividends to be prepared.
