Half-hourly meters

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What is a half-hourly (HH) AMR meter?

An Automated Meter Reading (AMR) electricity meter is a type of metering system which uses automatic meter reading technology to split your energy consumption into more accurate 30-minute blocks called half-hourly (HH) metering.

AMR meters rely on fixed communications, which send remote, automated meter readings to the energy supplier every half-hour. Using this data with monitoring and targeting software such as our SSE Clarity platform, allows you to identify ways you can reduce your energy usage and carbon footprint.

Why do I need one?

Larger businesses typically benefit from half-hourly meters due to their high energy consumption, which is very difficult to measure using a standard meter. Half-hourly customers are billed using 48 half-hourly data periods for each 24 hours. This level of detail reveals what is being used on a day-to-day basis, helping us to forecast much more accurately and helping our customers to get an accurate picture of their energy use, and see where they might improve/reduce their consumption.

For sites with an electricity capacity of 100kW or more, half-hourly meters are mandatory by law.

What are the benefits?

Remote, fully automated reading – no need for manual readings
Accurate, timely and up-to-date billing – no more estimates
Consumption data can reveal trends to help you implement energy saving measures
Access to our enhanced package of support services and tools – such as SSE Clarity
Compare energy usage by the day, week, month or year to improve forecasting and help to take control over your budgeting

What are Settlement Charges?

Also known as ‘pass through’ charges, these are charges set by the local Distribution Network Operator (DNO). They include Available Capacity, Excess Available Capacity and Reactive Power charges.

What is Maximum Demand?

Maximum Demand is a business’s peak demand of electricity at any half-hour period.

What is Available Capacity?

If you have HH electricity meters, Available Capacity (also referred to as Av Cap or Available Supply Capacity) can make up a significant proportion of your electricity costs.

Measured in kVA, the Available Capacity is used to increase the Maximum Demand and is essentially the amount of electricity the local DNO is required to make available to your site at any one time. This is paid indirectly to the DNO via your energy bill and you will be charged whether or not you require it. Amendments can only be agreed directly with the DNO, where possible.

What happens if we use more than the available capacity?

You may be charged for exceeding your Available Supply Capacity if you have expanded a site’s function without asking for the Available Supply Capacity to be increased. These penalties are referred to as ‘Excess Capacity’ charges and can rack up significantly over time.

The DNO will inform us every month of the available capacity agreed, and any excess charge to apply.

What is the Data Collector Transactional charge?

This covers charges for services arranged by a contracted Data Collector that we must retain. It ensures those services are provided to us in a timely and secure manner.

What is the Meter Operator Umbrella Charge?

This covers charges to ensure any meter operator contracted directly, delivers services to us in a timely and secure manner. This includes repairs to faults, provision of enquiries, provision of meter technical details, performance assurance reporting and meter proving tests. To cover our liabilities, we put a contract in place with the direct meter operator which this charge covers.

What are Triads?

Triads are the three half hour periods of peak power demand across the national grid in a year (from November to February). These three readings are averaged then used to calibrate the system costs, which are passed onto the industry.

What is a Transmission Network Use of Systems (TNUoS)/Triad Interim Payment?

Although TNUoS/Triad Reconciliation is based on peak demand periods from the winter months, November to February, a Triad year runs from April to March.

As a result, the customer’s monthly invoices from April to February will recover a Triad Interim payment. This is a monthly contribution (advanced payment) towards the reconciliation that will take place with the March invoice.

What is the direct debit discount policy for HH meters?

Our direct debit policy is applied to both HH and NHH metered contracts. Without a direct debit in place, you will not be able to take advantage of our discounted energy contract prices, and if you later cancel your direct debit the prices will increase by 0.5p/kWh.

What does MOP stands for?

A MOP (Meter Operator) is an agent responsible for the installation and upkeep of an electricity meter at a site. This is the company that will go to the site and fit a meter and then provide ongoing meter maintenance.

Meter Operator (MOP) agreements

For non-half-hourly meters (NHH), we'll allocate the local meter operator to install a meter. If a half-hourly electricity AMR meter (HH) is to be fitted, a contract (known as a Meter Operator agreement or MOP contract) is chosen by the customer with a meter operator for this work to go ahead.

It is standard practice to lease a half-hourly meter from a meter operator, as it’s then their responsibility to maintain an effective ongoing service and ensure effective data delivery of energy consumption.

A MOP contract is always a standalone agreement and is independent to any separate electricity supply agreement. Customers who choose to have their own MOP contract are invoiced directly from their meter operator for any associated service charges. If a customer fails to appoint a third-party meter operator then we'll appoint one.

What do the meter operator charges cover?

The meter operator charges cover rental and maintenance of the half-hourly meter.

What does the meter operator contract cover?

The meter operator contract covers all metering related work including installation and callout in the unlikely event of data retrieval faults.

Where can I find a list of meter operators?

You can find a list on meteroperators.org.uk.

What is the role of a half-hourly data collector (DC) and data aggregator (DA)?

The Data Collector (DC) is an organisation accredited to carry out data collection for metering systems. The DC is appointed by the supplier to retrieve and validate metering data and forward it to the Data Aggregator. The DC may be appointed by the customer for HH AMR meters, but they must always be accredited and contracted to the customer’s supplier.

The Data Aggregator (DA) is an organisation accredited to carry out data aggregation for metering data. The DA is appointed by the supplier to aggregate consumption from Data Collector(s) so that this can be validated and used for billing. Usually the Data Collector and Data Aggregator are the same company, but this is not essential.