What is a Half Hourly meter?
Half Hourly meters are billed on the Half Hourly data that is recorded by the meter. Every Half an Hour the meter records your consumption which is collated by a Data Collector which is then sent to your energy supplier. This data can be requested from your supplier in a data spreadsheet which can help to build up a picture of the shape of your usage to better understand how and when you use it.
Is it priced differently to standard meters?
Most Half Hourly meters are priced on a Day and Night split though some suppliers vary rates in other ways. For Day and Night pricing there is a different unit rate attached to associated with the period of the day the energy is consumed in.
Why is the Day unit rate always more expensive?
Due to the demand on the grid, unit rates covering peak times can significantly affect the unit rates you pay. Often the most expensive period of a weekday would be between 4pm and 7pm as this is when most of the population gets home, puts the kettle on and makes dinner. The surge in demand that this puts on the grid can often require them to switch on generators to meet the demand which are expensive to run. This, combined with most business trading hours falling between 7am and Midnight, means Day rates will be higher than the Night rate which in contrast, cover the hours when most people are sleeping creating low demand midnight to 7am.
Having this sort of pricing split often means that if you have energy intensive machinery that can be run unsupervised, saving this until that night period where there is lower demand can make you significant savings.
Why is the benefit of having a Half Hourly meter?
When it comes to procuring a new energy contract, suppliers will look at your data and the shape of your usage to predict what the cost for your next contract. Knowing your day and night split historically will help them to purchase the correct energy for your contract. If your supply is new or does not have a consistent consumption history, you may find your prices are higher due to the supplier having to build in risk due to the unpredictability of your consumption.
How can NFU Energy support me?
When tendering for our Half Hourly customers, we will submit your data to the suppliers and get them to quote. If you do not have a clear consumption history, we may ask you some useful questions to help us to get the suppliers to better understand your forecasts and to remove some of the risk – resulting in fairer prices.
If you would like to better understand your consumption, how it might be affecting the prices you pay and support with similar ways we can save you money on your renewals, please contact the Bespoke Contracts team on 024 7669 8885 for help.