Half-hourly metering - appointing a meter operator?

[Benny Saltstein]

Does anyone have any experience with Half-hourly meter operators? This appears to be a whole new tier of administration added to our energy supply with lots of potential charges if we don't comply.

Our energy supplier has recently contacted us as we need to get a half hourly meter fitted to one of our units where the demand has exceeded 100Kw. We're in the SSE supply area so I've contacted them but wondered if anyone has any recommendations?

We're in a poor mobile coverage area so need an alternative return path for the data. Any info would be appreciated.

[Jockman]

It's a wonderful process. Wait until you get your new type bills !!

Mr Overheads will be a good contact for you on this one.

[coetzeeh]

You can either contract direct with a MOP or request your Supplier to contract a MOP as part of the supply agreement.

There are a number of excellent MOP - IMServe is one I'd recommend.

edit: all sites above 70kw should have HH metering (see P272).

[Benny Saltstein]

Thanks for that. I've got one proposal through so far - am I right in thinking this is an additional cost with no reduction in standing charge?

£~360/annum on a BT line for 10 years seems steep for something we've not had to pay for previously - unless I'm going to realize a reduction in p/kwh on a night rate?

We operate a night shift so night rates would be relevant to us and not something we currently benefit from.

But somehow paying for metering leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[coetzeeh]

You would previously have paid for metering but rolled up in the unit rate when you were NHH.For HH you will also attract ASC cost (available supply capacity) which is an incremental cost.

With HH metering your supplier is able to break down all costs - commodity and non commodity costs such as taxes, levies, transmission, distribution costs.

HH may not be cheaper in all cases but you get visibility of your consumption profile during the day - the key is not to consume, or consume less, between 4pm and 7pm when cost of energy is most expensive. If you are able to move your load to midnight & later you could save £££.

[Jockman]

We have a MOP Agreement with Dataserve. £425pa covering communications link and meter operator charge. Make sure the Supplier doesn't charge you for one as well.

Cheapest energy between midnight and 7.00am.

Unit rates tend to be lower on HH. Your choice of supplier will be reduced to big(ish) operators.

We also pay Capacity Charges amongst other items.

[Davel]

We have high voltage fed to our site and a half-hourly meter in the sub-station.

This sends the readings automatically to the supplier.

Prior to this, we had a guy who used to visit us each month.

[Jockman]

They still have to visit you once a year to check it IIRC.

[Ean218]

Benny Saltstein said:

Our energy supplier has recently contacted us as we need to get a half hourly meter fitted to one of our units where the demand has exceeded 100Kw. We're in the SSE supply area so I've contacted them but wondered if anyone has any recommendations?

We're in the SSE area too.

We haven't used them as a supplier for donkey's years but when our contract came up for renewal at Christmas I found that, out of all the suppliers, they had the most clued up people on the half-hourly metering front. So although they weren't the very cheapest they reassured me that their prices were kosher and would cover our transition over to half-hourly and there would be no surprise costs. Most of the others were very vague or didn't even know what the change to half-hourly meant.